Wellington Triathlete Martin Van Barneveld has finished in tenth place at the latest ITU World Cup Triathlon in Ishigaki, Japan this morning.
The former U23 World Championship medalist was aiming for a strong finish to pick up valuable ranking points before taking a break from a busy racing schedule and a return later in the season for the London World Champs race that doubles as the Olympic qualifying event.
The sole Kiwi in either men’s or women’s races, Van Barneveld achieved those goals in a steady performance in a good field.
“Well the trip was a success. It was a long way to travel but I had to do it because I had a bad result in Mooloolaba. But thankfully this time I was able to get a better result and pick up some good points.
“The swim was very difficult, and was extremely physical and I lost quite a bit of time to the leaders. Thankfully I was able to get into a group which was able to ride up to form the main back pack, behind the 3 athletes who broke away. The bike was pretty slow but the course seemed to go very quickly on very smooth roads.
“I came into transition with the big bunch and I got bumped by somebody which caused me to drop my bike, so meant I came out of T2 a little behind. The run course is actually a little harder than everybody thinks, with the Ishigaki bridge being a lot steeper than you think. So I was pleased to put in a solid run time of 31.50 which is a good building platform for the rest of the year. The last lap of the run was hard, so I was happy to have kept my position and to finish 10th overall is a solid result.
The race was won by American Hunter Kemper from Artem Parienko (RUS) and Marek Jaskolka (POL) with former World Champion Ivan Rana (ESP) unable to force his way on to the podium, stressing the quality of the field in a year in which everyone is trying to peak to qualify for London 2012.
The Ishigaki ITU Triathlon World Cup is the longest running ITU World Cup event, having been held every year since 1996. The island, approximately 2,000km southwest of Tokyo, has become a triathlon mecca in Japan. Before the women’s race, over 1,600 triathletes from all over the region participated in the age-group races.
ITU World Cup, Ishigaki, Japan
Elite Men
| 1. | Hunter Kemper | USA | 1:50:32 |
| 2. | Artem Parienko | RUS | 1:50:47 |
| 3. | Marek Jaskolka | POL | 1:50:49 |
| 4. | Ivan Rana | ESP | 1:50:55 |
| 5. | Joao Pereira | POR | 1:50:59 |
| 6. | Ramon Ejeda Medina | ESP | 1:51:02 |
| 7. | Jens Toft | DEN | 1:51:05 |
| 8. | Ryan Fisher | AUS | 1:51:09 |
| 9. | Jan Celustka | CZE | 1:51:13 |
| 10. | Martin Van Barneveld | NZL | 1:51:14 |
