Beijing Olympians Bevan Docherty and Debbie Tanner proved
their class at the New Zealand triathlon championships here
today.
Docherty ran away from a huge group off the bike and Tanner
kicked clear of Nicky Samuels (Wanaka) and Aucklander Rebecca
Spence after the trio rode away from the women's field on the
40km bike.
Docherty took the men's event in one hour 52 minutes 59
seconds while Tanner clocked 2:04:54 to take the women's
race. Both events comprised a 1500m swim, 40km cycle and 10km
run, and were the final round of the national triathlon
series as well as carrying ITU Continental Cup points.
The men's race resembled a freight train with the field
emerging from the water in one large group, with all the
pre-race favourites right in the thick of it.
Off the bike it was Wellington's Martin van Barneveld who put
the foot down, clearing out to a 50 metre lead with Docherty,
Ellice and O'Grady in close attention.
Docherty made his move midway through the run, looking
comfortable as he ran clear of Ellice and O'Grady by 20
seconds.
"Overall that was a good day," Docherty said.
"The swim was flat and with the quality of the swimmers in
the race, it was always going to be tough to break away. The
size of the break on the bike again meant we were all going
to stay together and it would come down to the run. I would
have liked a tougher bike but that's okay.
"I paced myself well on the run and was never in any
discomfort and finished strong. A national championship is
nice for sure."
The women's race played out differently, with the leading
three of Tanner, Spence and Samuels riding together to put a
couple of minutes on the field at the end of the cycle.
First out of transition was Tanner and for the first time
this season, she found her running rhythm to finish 13
seconds ahead of Samuels with Spence in third and winning the
under-23 title
"I'm stoked, from the start that was a good race," Tanner
said.
"I looked around on the swim, saw no one around other than
Rebecca so put my head down and went for it. Nicky caught us
on the bike and she and Rebecca worked so hard, we all did
and put some time on Kate (McIlroy).
"The run was great, I feel like I am back in the groove for
the first time this season."
The under-23 titles were won by Tony Dodds (Wanaka) and
Spence, both earning ITU points towards their under-23
rankings. Dodds was delighted with his efforts.
"I'm really happy with that today. I have not been able to
run all week with an achilles strain, all I could do was aqua
jogging so I wasn't sure how I would go but it felt fine."
The New Zealand team to contest the world triathlon
championships in Australia in September will be announced
tomorrow.
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