Sissons and Holland master Mooloolaba
Mathew Sharpe and Emilie Kretz finish as top Canadians at last ITU event for the next few months.
In what will be the last ITU racing we’ll see until at least the end of April, New Zealand’s Ryan Sissons and Great Britain’s Vicky Holland topped the podium at the Mooloolaba ITU Triathlon World Cup in Australia.
Holland powers to the win
Former ITU world champ Vicky Holland and countrywoman Georgia Taylor-Brown made it a two-woman duel for the win at the Mooloolaba ITU Triathlon World Cup.
“With one lap to go it was between myself and Georgia,” Holland said after the race.” I thought I might have over cooked it a little bit and was going to struggle at the back end. But as soon as we rounded the top turn, I decided to use the downhill and flow as much as possible, and try and stride out. I could hear on the PA that I had put a little gap into her but didn’t want to look back, so I only took a peek with a 100 metres to go, just to make sure.”
Australia’s Ashleigh Gentle was the best of the rest, sprinting to the line to round out the podium.
“For first race of the season I am pretty happy that I could come from behind after an ordinary T2 and grind my way up into third,” Gentle said. “Going into the last lap I didn’t think I could catch the lead girls because they went out so fast and had such a gap, so I just focused on the last downhill and the two girls I was running with Andrea Hewitt and Elizabeth Bravo. I made sure we had a gap to Emma Jeffcoat and then slowed down a lot and sat in behind Andrea and Elizabeth. They are very small girls but I tried to get them to break the wind and when I knew I could finish it off to the line, I sprinted as hard as I could. I haven’t done much speed work, so I was pretty happy that I had that sprint in my back pocket.”
Canada’s Amelie Kretz was the top Canadian in the field, finishing 22nd in a time of 59:54. Emy Legault took 35th in 1:02:01.
Sissons sprints clear
The men’s race came down to a sprint between New Zealand’s Ryan Sissons and Hayden Wilde, with Australia’s Luke Willian rounding out the podium.
“I did everything I needed to do and I put myself in the best position on the swim, right in contact, on the bike I was at the front the whole time and I went off on the run as hard as I could and let everyone else chase and it paid off, Sissons said. “Knowing this race was on was a bit of a miracle and to come here and race as good as I did is amazing. I did everything I needed to do, I am absolutely stoked about it.”
Canada’s Matthew Sharpe finished 19th in a time of 53:04, while Alexis Lepage didn’t finish
Elite Men
1 Ryan SISSONS 00:51:49 00:07:56 00:27:36 00:15:04
2 Hayden WILDE 00:51:49 00:07:57 00:27:42 00:14:58
3 Luke WILLIAN 00:51:53 00:07:52 00:27:46 00:15:06
Elite Women
1 Vicky HOLLAND 00:57:45 00:08:51 00:30:38 00:16:54
2 Georgia TAYLOR-BROWN 00:58:00 00:08:52 00:30:35 00:17:10
3 Ashleigh GENTLE 00:58:12 00:09:12 00:30:23 00:17:19
