Sissons Wins Silver in Budapest

Ryan Sissons won a rare World Championship age group medal at the ITU U23 Triathlon Championships in Budapest this morning when the young Aucklander picked up a silver medal in a star studded field. In the U23 womens race there were more promising signs with Teresa Adam racing superbly to finish in 6th place in just her second year in the sport.

Of the other Kiwis, Tony Dodds was 26th and Tom Davison 33rd in the men's while in the women's U23 Rebecca Kingsford was 28th.

In the men's elite race, Clark Ellice finished the best of the Kiwis in 18th place with late inclusion James Elvery 38th and Martin van Barneveld 43rd. Ben Pattle was disqualified after crossing the line (details are unknown at this point) and Kris Gemmell fell victim to a treacherous bike course in wet conditions on the partly cobble stoned course around Budapest. There are few details available at this point with more information to come from Budapest.

Following are quotes from New Zealand athletes, complete reports are available at www.triathlon.org.

 Ryan Sissons

"This was the perfect way to end a great season for me," Sissons said. "Everything went how I wanted it to go today. I couldn't run with Jonathan, but to get a silver medal at a World Championship is great for me."

Tony Dodds

"Started off the day felt good, took the swim out comfortably and came out 2nd of the water, from there we had a little group but nothing that was going to get away today, throughout the bike the biggest task was to keep alert of everything going on and keep near the front as it was a very dodgy course and wet! And I did that as well, so everything was going as I had planned, was a bit lethargic throughout the bike but this was the day to fire!

So going into transition I went through my head that I needed to be near the front....and that I did, I came out of transition 3rd and took the first 1km out quite solid just how I imagined it. Little Brownlee was already up the road who was hard to chase, so I was sitting in 2nd place until about 3km and then it all fell apart, it just wasn't my day....I felt stiff and just not as relaxed as I would like, and from there it went downhill, don't know where I finished up but was way back after that.

Looking back now I was wanting to give myself a chance of a podium and winning even if it meant it hurt, and I did exactly that, but just didn't feel good on the run! So I think mentally it was either all or nothing for me and I did what I had to keep myself there.

Now to Ryan Sissons the little beauty who took out 2nd place! Very well raced by him, he stuck in there and stuck in the group then managed to sprint to take out silver for NZ! James Elvery I ended up in 38th after a tough race in Budapest today. It was a bit of a risk coming here for me as I didn't actually get onto the startlist until late last night, with Simn Whitfield withdrawing at the last minute. I suddenly had to change my whole mindset and refocus after being pretty depressed; sitting in my room all day convinced I would be on the sidelines, to racing against the world's best in the biggest race of the year. It's a very big deal to me to represent New Zealand at the highest level, and this day is always special with the Kiwi age groupers there to cheer us on in the crowd.

I got pretty knocked around in the swim but managed to get up to 15th out of the water and 10th onto the bike. I was really happy with that as making it to the very front of the race in the swim is something I have worked really hard at and achieved consistently this year. Unfortunately our lead pack of about 20 was caught at 7k by the chasers and after seeing the coverage I think this may possibly have not have been the case on a drier day. The bike was not at all enjoyable for me once me got into the tight loops around downtown Budapest. It was really dangerous with the wet, the tight corners, tram tracks and big lumps in the Eastern European roads. I got caught behind a couple of crashes and after regaining the group struggled to get back towards the front of the train. It's always much tougher at the back of the group and I just couldn't get forward, only having the chance to drink about 3 sips of my bottle the whole ride.

The run for me was sub par, my lungs felt great after most of the season at altitude, but the legs were smashed after a hard ride and racing for the 3rd weekend in a row. So overall; great to get a start and a few valuable points going into a big year next year, but not an ideal day for me.

Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Budapest Grand Final Budapest, Hungary - 11 Sept 2010

1.5K swim, 40K bike, 10K run

U23 Men Results

1. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) 1:44:25

2. Ryan Sissons (NZL) 1:44:52

3. Franz Loeschke (GER) 1:44:53

4. Jamie Huggett (AUS) 1:44:55

5. Alessandro Fabian (ITA) 1:45:02

6. Crisanto Grajales (MEX) 1:45:22

7. Vincent Luis (FRA) 1:45:29

8. Richard Murray (RSA) 1:45:33

9. Aurelien Raphael (FRA) 1:45:47

10. Drew Box (AUS) 1:45:51

Plus 26 Tony Dodds (NZL) 1:47:30 33

Tom Davison (NZL) 1:48:40

U23 Women Results

1. Emma Jackson (AUS) 1:58:07

2. Kirsten Sweetland (CAN) 1:58:59

3. Emmie Charayron (FRA) 1:59:19

4. Rachel Klamer (NED) 1:59:31

5. Alexandra Razarenova (RUS) 1:59:45

6. Teresa Adam (NZL) 2:00:07

7. Alice Betto (ITA) 2:00:11

8. Fiora Duffy (BER) 2:00:14

9. Lauren Goldstein-Kral (USA) 2:00:18

10. Charlotte Bonin (ITA) 2:00:45

Plus 28 Rebecca Kingsford (NZL) 2:05:33

Elite Men Results

1. Alistair Brownlee (GBR) 1:42:26

2. Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:42:30 +4

3. Steffen Justus (GER) 1:43:04 +39

4. Joao Silva (POR) 1:43:05 +40

5. Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) 1:43:09 +44

6. David Hauss (FRA) 1:43:12 +46

7. Maik Petzold (GER) 1:43:18 +52

8. Sven Riederer (SUI) 1:43:37 +1:11

9. Jonathan Zipf (GER) 1:43:47 +1:22

10. Christian Prochnow (GER) 1:43:55 +1:29

Plus 18 Clark Ellice (NZL) 1:44:16

38 James Elvery (NZL) 1:45:44

43 Martin van Barneveld (NZL) 1:46:07

DQF Ben Pattle

DNF Kris Gemmell