Kahlefeldt wins Mooloolaba

Australia’s Brad Kahlefeldt was victorious on home soil today, winning the first World Cup race of the season in Mooloolaba.

Kahlefeldt finished ten seconds ahead of Great Britain’s Stuart Hayes, while another Aussie, James Seear finished third, after leading for most of the race.

New Zealand’s Dylan McNeice, led out of the water (18:18) with Josh Amberger and Seear just a few seconds behind.

Seear and Amberger, worked together (they train together too) to build an advantage on the bike, having a gap of 1:38 coming into the final lap.

After lap two (of five), the initial chase group of 20 diminished to four – Courtney Atkinson (AUS), Kahlefeldt, Hayes and Cameron Good (AUS), and they were 90 seconds down on Seear with 6 km left to go. On the final lap, Kahlefeldt and Hayes were just 10 seconds back of Seear and they surged past for first and second respectively.  Defending champion, Courtney Atkinson finished 11^th.

“I was hurting at that point, but I knew it was time to go, so Stu and I put on another push and finally caught James,” said Kahlefeldt on triathlon.org. “The crowd here in Mooloolaba was amazing today, it was great to have a little support out there, especially on that final lap.”

Kahlefeldt swam 18:39, biked 1:00:45, and ran a race best 31:36.

The women’s race goes tomorrow, with Canada’s Kirsten Sweetland looking to defend her title.

Live updates can be found here.

Mooloolaba ITU World Cup – Men’s Results

Top Ten

1.  Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS)  1:51:31

2.  Stuart Hayes (GBR)  1:51:41

3.  James Seear (AUS)  1:51:58

4.  Dan Wilson (AUS)  1:52:17

5.  Danylo Sapunov (UKR)  1:52:17

6.  David Hauss (FRA)  1:53:03

7.  Ivan Rana (ESP)  1:53:16

8.  Jamie Huggett (AUS)  1:53:21

9.  Kevin Collington (USA)  1:53:24

10.  David Dellow (AUS)  1:53:34