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Harrison and Polyansky win at Tongyeong

Harrison her first and Polyansky his second.

France’s Jessica Harrison stormed to her first career ITU Triathlon World Cup title in Tongyeong today, a satisfying victory for the veteran whose ITU career began in 1995.  In this her 46th World Cup appearance, Harrison finally stood atop the podium.

“(The race) went as well as I could have expected,” said Harrison. “It feels pretty good, it’s been a long time coming, little by little I’ve been getting up the ladder and I hope that could be an inspiration for the girls who aren’t world beaters at (age) 18. With hard work and really concentrating on the details, you can get there in the end and I’m really happy.”

Ireland’s Aileen Morrison crossed the finish line 30 seconds behind Harrison to take silver, an outstanding performance just six days after racing in the gruelling World Cup in Huatulco, Mexico. Spain’s Zurine Rodriguez broke through for her first trip to a World Cup podium.

Line Jensen (DEN) had gained twenty seconds over her nearest challengers exiting the swim, but Harrison had already placed herself at the front leaving T2 in second place.  The hilly bike course suited strong riders like Harrison who took her turn to head up the pack of 12 that continued out front for the remainder of the ride.

The leading 12 athletes began the run within seconds of one another, but the group soon separated as both the day and the race heated up. Harrison began to pull away almost immediately on the fast run course and behind her the field was spreading out. After the first lap Morrison was eight seconds behind in pursuit of Harrison with Rodriguez a further seven seconds back.

By the bell lap, Harrison was way out in front and proved untouchable all the way to the finish tape, celebrating her first ever ITU victory.  She broke the tape at 2 hours and 41 seconds.

Elite Women

1. Jessica Harrison FRA 2:00:41

2. Aileen Morrison IRL 2:01:09

3. Zurine Rodriguez ESP 2:01:18

4. Carole Peon FRA 2:01:29

5. Mariko Adachi JPN 2:01:48

6. Radka Vodickova CZE 2:01:54

7. Kathrin Muller GER 2:02:06

8. Kiyomi Niwata JPN 2:02:10

9. Irina Abysova RUS 2:02:17

10. Margit Vanek HUN 2:02:32

Men’s Review

Russia’s Dmitry Polyansky continued his impressive late season surge with an emphatic victory at the Tongyeong ITU Triathlon World Cup, breaking the tape at 1 hour, 49 minutes and 33 seconds.  Spain’s Jose Miguel Perez and Belgium’s Simon De Cuyper both broke through for the first World Cup podiums of their respective careers.

After leading the swim, Ivan Vasiliev (RUS) and Richard Varga (SVK) led a large pack of 26 out onto the bike course with Russian teammates Igor Polyanskiy, Dmitry Polyansky and Denis Vasiliev just metres behind.  At the men attacked the tough 40km bike course, packs came together, resulting in 34 athletes riding together heading into T2.

Once they were on the 10km run course, Polyansky surged to the front and opened a 7-second lead on De Cuyper, Daniel Hofer (ITA), home favourite Min Ho Heo (KOR) and Tony Dodds (NZL). At the midway mark of the run, Polyansky has extended his lead and held a 23-second advantage over his closest pursuers.

De Cuyper and Perez were making up ground in the final lap but the Russian was not going to be denied his second career World Cup title.  Perez surged to the silver medal position, finishing just 16 seconds behind Polyansky while De Cuyper also came from behind to over take last year’s runner-up Aurelien Raphael for the silver.

Elite Men

1. Dmitry Polyansky RUS 1:49:33

2. Jose Miguel Perez ESP 1:49:49

3. Simon De Cuyper BEL 1:49:52

4. Aurélien Raphael FRA 1:50:06

5. Min Ho Heo KOR 1:50:10

6. Marek Jaskolka POL 1:50:20

7. Tony Dodds NZL 1:50:23

8. Daniel Hofer ITA 1:50:25

9. Jan Celustka CZE 1:50:39

10. Ivan Vasiliev RUS 1:50:48

The next round of the ITU Triathlon World Cup Series is in Guatape, Colombia on November 6.

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