Kiwis to the Fore in Triathlons Around the World

London Olympian Bevan Docherty continued his progress in his search for a third medal to go with his silver from Athens and bronze from Beijing with a third place finish at the famous Escape From Alcatraz triathlon in San Diego yesterday while Clark Ellice raced strongly for a podium finish in Austria and Callum Millward finished tied for first in Boise, Idaho.

Docherty will line up alongside Ryan Sissons and Kris Gemmell in London and continued his build up to his third Olympic Games with the non drafting race at the famous venue, coming home third behind American Andy Potts and Australian Courtney Atkinson.

Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon
Pro Men
1          Andy Potts                 (USA)             2:03:17
2          Courtney Atkinson (AUS)             2:03:53
3          Bevan Docherty       (NZL)              2:04:32
4          Francesc Godoy       (ESP)                         2:08:03
5          Jon Bird                     (CAN)             2:08:18

Meanwhile London reserve Clark Ellice also raced strongly on the weekend, racing to third place at the Klagenfurt 5150 elite men’s race in Austria. The race forms part of a rich non-drafting series, culminating in the big money Des Moines race with US$150,000 for first place.

Ellice was pleased with his first podium in this format of racing.

“It’s no ITU WTS but this series has become an important series for many a few triathletes whom have missed out on Olympic selection and still want to make something of their season to test their fitness level and inevitably get a start to the big money race at season’s end Des Moines.

“This is my first international podium of 2012 in a class field; I believe it is not so much a step down from ITU but just a different format with the non-drafting on the bike, which as you can see from the photos has led to a new piece of speed weaponry being used for this format. The disc wheels come out, the longer time trial aero-bars, helmet and frame all change from your standard road bike to make for some pretty fast 40k bike splits, as opposed to the occasional surge or breakaway in the draft legal ITU racing.

“It’s definitely taken me a bit to adapt to the new bike, get lower and aero and learn to push bigger gears, but a top 5 bike split in the weekend is showing my adapting to non drafting is progressing well. My ultimate goal is to use this new bike strength to implement on the likes of hard ITU courses, including the Auckland Grand Final in October.

“The next big race is the 5150 European champs in Liverpool on the 1st of July, this is the last serious chance for me to secure enough points to qualify for Des Moines, so with my new rig and disc attached it will be game on for sure, being a dead flat bike, it’s going to make for some seriously fast 40k bike splits. Not too stoked about swimming in the docklands in Liverpool but just gargle some coke after the swim and should kill off the nasties!”

5i50 Klagenfurt
Austria
Pro Men
1          Ruedi Wild                SUI                 01:48:21
2          Josh Amberger         AUS                01:48:53
3          Clark Ellice                NZL                01:49:28
4          Alberto Casadei       ESP                01:49:47
5          Ivan Kalashnikov     RUS               01:49:57

Finally over the weekend, Callum Millward continued the good performances by New Zealanders with a win (first equal) at the Boise 70.3, in Idaho USA while Julia Grant backed up her win last week with a 5th place at the same event, one that was shortened due to extreme weather conditions.

Boise 70.3
Idaho, USA
Pro Men
1 Callum Millward – 2:13:23
1 Matty Reed – 2:13:23
3 Tim O’Donnell – 2:14:17
4 Tim Reed – 2:15:41
5 Trevor Wurtele – 2:16:03

Pro Women
1 Jodie Swallow – 2:29:28
2 Malaika Homo – 2:31:51
3 Nikki Butterfield – 2:33:33
4 Julia Grant – 2:34:25
5 Linsey Corbin – 2:35:40