Breakthrough Victories For NZ Triathletes

 

Kate McIlroy and Callum Millward scored breakthrough victories at the Pan American Cup Triathlon in Austin, Texas earlier today with fellow Kiwi Martin van Barneveld in third.

For McIlroy the win is the first in a fledgling triathlon career, one that only began in late 2008 as the former Mountain Running World Champion and Commonwealth Games Steeplechaser looked to reduce the stress on her battered Achilles tendons.

Her rapid progress with Coach Greg Fraine has surprised them both and her maiden international victory is good reward for months of hard work.

"I have had a great block of training with everything going really well since mid April really, the running especially. I am still so new to all of this but it is nice to get my first win. From my days as an athlete I was used to being in the top five in most of my races so this is nice.

“I struggled in the swim today, it was a non-wetsuit which doesn’t suit me and the field quickly became strung out so there was little or no drafting which again, I prefer. Despite working hard on the bike we couldn’t close the gap on the leaders but I had a great run, something around 33:40 so I am really pleased.”

McIlroy is not getting carried away just yet though.

“I am making good progress but have so much to learn. Hopefully the points earned today will get me a start at the Des Moines World Cup race in June, which will provide another opportunity to progress. For now I am off to Boulder to spend some training time with the 2012 high performance squad.”

Millward's win is great reward also for an athlete who suffered with calf muscle problems in the early part of his career. His progress was continually halted by compartment syndrome, limiting the amount of running the year old could do.

"I am just so relieved at this win, it really is a big step for me. The key has been the ability to put in some consistent run training after years of frustration with the calf muscles. I have worked closely with my coach Pete Pfitzinger and it looks like we might be getting it right."

The race was marred by a big crash late on the bike, one that saw two of the three Kiwis in the men's field affected with Graham O'Grady's race effectively ruined as he fell heavily while Millward had to stop and unclip from his pedals to avoid a similar fate.

"We had about 3 minutes left on the bike and everyone was jockeying for position when an American shot up the inside and started half wheeling Marty (van Barneveld). The smallest of movement from Marty brought the American and about 10 other rides down with Graham falling heavily. I managed to get going again and bridged the gap to the front of the bunch before transition but it was a close thing."

Millward then had to run down well performed American Brian Fleischmann, along with two others who had broken over a minute clear during the swim and bike legs.

"Brian was the real threat; we ran the others down inside 3 or 4 minutes but had some work to do to get to the lead. Myself, Marty and another American Kevin Collington worked well together and moved to the front with about 3km to go. Marty was the first to drop of the three of us and with about a lap to go i began a series of surges, eventually dropping Collington with about 300m to run. The win felt great and is a positive sign for me at this point in my career. My goals are small ones, gradual ones if you like so i am not getting carried away but this is a great start as i look to consolidate in the 2012 potential group with Tri NZ."

Given he has a record of suffering in the heat, Wellington’s Martin van Barneveld coped well and finished strongly, less than 30 seconds behind Millward.

“It was super hot out there, I have just recently done some studies in Dunedin with triathlon NZ to try and work on handling the heat better, as usually I blow up, so today I wanted to try some different tactics. I didn’t bother with a run or bike warm up in order to try and keep my core temperature down, must have paid off because I was able to have a solid race.

“The whole bike was pretty slow, we had a large group so it was very hard to try and get everyone organized to work together to try catch the front 3. The crash was a little scary and also disappointing as Graham O’Grady got caught up in that.

“I am happy with the race today, the heat is usually my enemy but today I was able to run through it and get my overseas campaign off to a good start and it was so much fun spraying the champagne on the podium.”

Pan American Cup Triathlon
1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run

Elite Men
Callum Millward Hawkes Bay NZL 1:43:17
Kevin Collington USA 1:43:20
Martin van Barneveld Wellington NZL 1:43:45
Mauro Conceicao BRA 1:44:28
Brian Fleischmann USA 1:44:52
Graham O’Grady Christchurch NZL DNF

Elite Women
Kate McIlroy Wellington NZL 1:56:04
Hayley Peirsol USA 1:56:49
Jenna Shoemaker USA 1:57:49
Pamela Nascimen Oliveira BRA 2:00:03
Jennifer Spieldenner USA 2:01:11