The ITU Dextro Energy Triathlon World Championship Series visits Hamburg this weekend as a number of New Zealand triathletes look for a reversal of fortune in the 5th of 8 races in the inaugural series.
After a year affected by illness, injury and poor weather, the majority of the Kiwi athletes are running out of time to put strong performances in before the season ending finale on the Gold Coast in September, when points will be multiplied to find a world champion.
8th ranked Kris Gemmell and 17th ranked Bevan Docherty know that this weekend presents a great opportunity for them to race well and immediately close the gap on series leaders Alistair Brownlee, Javier Gomez and Laurent Vidal, none of whom is lining up as they rest for London and Yokohama races next month.
In both cases podium finishes will propel the Kiwis up the charts as points are worked out over an athlete’s best four results in the series. Docherty already has a season opening win in Korea while Gemmell has raced consistently on occasions but like Docherty has been dogged by some bad luck too.
The two leading Kiwis will be joined on the start line by James Elvery and Martin Van Barneveld. Elvery gets his first opportunity at this level after racing well on the ITU Pan American Cup circuit while van Barneveld is under a different pressure as he looks to earn enough ranking points to get a start in the season ending Gold Coast round in September.
“It has been a smooth transition from training in Boulder to our new base in Sigmaringen here in Germany, and while the weather has been a little up and down it is still better than a New Zealand winter,” said Wellington’s Van Barneveld.
“The season for me started really well, but since then has been a little tough, getting sick just before my first big race, and then my timing coming down from altitude for the 2nd race was couple days off which lead to a very disappointing failure to finish in Kitzbuhel. However, I must look at the positives and in particular my swim in Kitzbuhel. Now I just have to do the same again this weekend to set up a good race.
“I have faith that I can correct the bike and run but I know that I need to get some results in the next three races in order to gain enough points to get a start at the final on the Gold Coast. So this weekend I really want to race like I know I can and give my training some justice.”
Elvery has set himself a realistic and yet high achieving goal in his first ever start in a World Championship Series race.
“This is my first World Champs Series race and the field looks pretty tough. I’m ranked 44th out of 65 starters so I'm aiming for a top 25 finish on the weekend,” said 25 year old Elvery.
“My preparation has been good, I recovered from the cold I had in San Francisco two weeks ago, got through the jetlag coming over from USA okay and had a good speedwork session in a sprint distance German Bundesliga race on Saturday. So I feel good, and am ready to go!”
The race will be covered live online at www.triathlon.org.
ITU Dextro Energy Triathlon World Championship Series
Hamburg, Germany
Elite women start – Sunday July 26th, 1.30am NZT
Elite men start – Monday July 27th, 12.50am NZT
