Sissons And Kingsford Race Up World Triathlon Rankings

Auckland’s Ryan Sissons and Tirau’s Rebecca Kingsford were the biggest winners following their success at the Oceania Triathlon Championships in Wellington over the weekend, with Sissons moving into the top twenty in the world rankings and Kingsford leaping an amazing 71 places to 52nd after both raced impressively to win U23 titles.

Thanks to the fastest run split in the entire field (31:30 for the 10km) Sissons made up huge ground to finish third overall and join winner Kris Gemmell (Palmerston North) and Aaron Royle (Australia) on the podium while winning his age group title by nearly two minutes, such was his dominance on the day. The 22 year old jumps to 20 in the world from 43 and is now clearly the third ranked Kiwi triathlete behind Kris Gemmell (moved up to 8th) and Bevan Docherty (16th) on the rankings list.

Kingsford meanwhile was in similarly impressive form, the 20 year old rebounded after a difficult 2010 to finish a superb 6th overall in a field boasting triathletes from 6 different countries and in doing so was the first Kiwi home ahead of a fast finishing Andrea Hewitt (punctured on the bike) and Olympian Debbie Tanner.

Triathlon New Zealand National Coach Greg Fraine is delighted with the progress of both Sissons and Kingsford.

“Rebecca’s race was a very good mature performance over the Olympic distance, Rebecca is seen as a long term development prospect and Wellington was a big step in the right direction. Her attitude and work ethic over the past 12 months has been nothing short of first class, as has her desire to learn and make progress in aspects of the sport.

“Both Ryan and Rebecca have come through the Tri NZ development programme. We have worked to have both of them immersed amongst the like of Andrea, Debbie, Bevan and Kris. This way they can learn what it takes to be a professional athlete rather than just an athlete living the fulltime athlete lifestyle. Both Rebecca and Ryan are on track to medal at the highest levels in our sport.”

Most of the New Zealanders competing on Saturday took advantage of the early season opportunity to earn ITU ranking points ahead of the European season which doesn’t start until the middle of the year as the majority of them made good gains in the rankings, vital for them to earn starts in the big ITU World Cup and World Champs Series events later in the year.

New Zealand triathletes ITU World Rankings (shows ranking before and after Oceania Champs in Wellington)
Women
Andrea Hewitt Chch 4th to 2nd
Debbie Tanner Auck 17th to 7th
Nicky Samuels Wanaka 21st
Kate McIlroy Wgtn 22nd
Rebecca Kingsford Tirau 123rd to 52nd
Simone Ackerman Nthld 199th to 105th
Sam Warriner Nthld 110th
Teresa Adam Auck 122nd

Men
Kris Gemmell P Nth 18th to 8th
Bevan Docherty Taupo 16th
Ryan Sissons Auck 43rd to 20th
Tony Dodds Wanaka 58th to 28th
Clark Ellice N Ply 42nd to 30th
Martin Van Barneveld Wgtn 82nd to 41st
James Elvery Chch 80th to 47th