Van Barneveld Leads Kiwi Charge At World Championships

New Zealand has started the final day of the World Triathlon Championships with a bronze medal for Martin Van Barneveld in the elite U23 men’s race.

Athletes have once again had to overcome bitterly cold and wet conditions with many withdrawals from crashes and the cold conditions decimating the fields.

The Kiwi women suffered in the U23 race with Julia Grant crashing heavily on a tight corner on lap two of the bike while both Jacqui Seebold and Anna Elvery were lapped out of the race late in the bike, both suffering from the cold.

The men though raced superbly with van Barneveld leading the way in third, followed by Tony Dodds in tenth, Ryan Sissons in 13th and Ben Visser in 30th.

Van Barneveld was delighted with his race.

“I’ve never had a good world champs and this was my last year as an U23. I’ve been working hard on my swimming and got off to good start on left hand side of the course with some good athletes, coming out just behind front bunch but we caught them on the first hill on the bike.

The course was cold with lots of water on road, w flicking up in our faces if you were riding behind someone. It was real survival mode to conserve energy and stay warm, I had an advantage in that I am slightly bigger so could keep warm.

“I came off at front of the pack, felt amazing, having just come down from attitude. I so wanted to have a good race, this is my last as U23. I needed to confirm that I can have a career in this sport. Up until now best world champs finish was 20th, going into elite men I needed the confidence of a good race, I am so happy and will build on this for the European season.”

Tri NZ High Performance Director Stephen Farrell said they all raced superbly.

“Martin had a blinder this morning, he raced really well. He stayed with the main bunch through the bike and ran strongly while others faded to finished third, just missing second in a sprint finish.

“Tony has also raced really well and remember he still has a couple of years in this age group while Ryan Sissons was experiencing this level of racing for the first time. He cramped up and lost plenty of places midway through the run but came back superbly to finish 13th.

“Even young Ben Visser will have learned so much from today’s efforts, he too will have better days at World Championships in the future, I have no doubt about that.”

Racing continues throughout the morning with the elite women on course now and the elite men set to get underway later this morning New Zealand time.

Conditions are cold, wet and difficult for the athletes.

Elite U23 Men
1A. Brownlee (GBR)1:54:37.611:54:37.61
2G. Buchholz (GER)1:54:56.61+19.00
3Martin Van Barneveld (NZL)1:54:59.06+21.45
4T. Leckie (GBR)1:55:12.58+34.97
5A. BRUKHANKOV (RUS)1:55:36.94+59.33
6L. Salvisberg (SUI)1:55:46.29+1:08.68
7N. Frommhold (GER)1:55:56.77+1:19.16
8A. Casadei (ITA)1:55:59.93+1:22.32
9J. Maeder (AUS)1:56:09.50+1:31.89
Plus NZers
10Tony Dodds (NZL)1:56:10.63+1:33.02
13Ryan Sissons (NZL)1:57:09.55+2:31.94
30Ben Visser (NZL)1:59:40.30+5:02.69

Elite U23 Women

1Daniela RYF (SUI)2:09:30.960.00
2Jasmine Oeinck (USA)2:10:02.26+31.30
3Mari RABIE (SAF)2:11:35.38+2:04.42
4Olesya Prystayko (UKR)2:12:51.56+3:20.60
5Barbara Riveros Diaz (CHI)2:13:02.93+3:31.97
Julia GrantDNF
Jacqui SeeboldDSQ
Anna ElveryDSQ