Russian Men Clean Sweep Tiszaujvaros ITU Triathlon World Cup

Polyansky crossing the line to win the Tiszaujvaros ITU Triathlon World Cup (Photo: Janos Schmidt / triathlon.org)

Russia enjoyed their most successful day of ITU Triathlon World Cup history as they swept aside every other nation to take the top three positions at the Tiszaujvaros ITU Triathlon World Cup in Hungary.

Dmitry Polyansky crossed the line to win in a time of 1:48:45 with Alexander Brukhankov nine seconds behind. Ivan Tutukin ran his way into third as Russia went on to place four in the top five.

It was the Russian men who pushed the early pace as they forced an early breakaway with Denis Vasiliev orchestrating the early push of pace as the top ten men out of the 1500m swim escaped into the bike. As they shared the pacing between them the chase pack could only maintain a gap of thirty seconds as the small breakaway tried to make the most of the technical bike course.

The relentless work of Australia's James Seear brought the chasers back into contention with just 10km of cycling to go, and a pack of 28 men exited second transition with 10km of running separating them from the finish tape.

Polyansky and Brukhankov quickly set the early pace, surging away from the chasers and pulling out a sizeable advantage. With just one kilometre to go Polyansky made his decisive move, pulling himself clear of the finishing kick of Brukhankov. Further back it look as though Volodymyr Polikarpenko from the Ukraine would take the bronze medal, however he faded on the final 2.5km lap allowing Tutukin onto the podium making it a clean sweep for the Russians. Gregory Rouault from France came through late on to take fourth.

"I'm really happy with my win because it's the first victory for my country in 2009," said Polyansky. "I knew Alexander [Brukhankov] had a very strong finishing sprint so I wanted to get away and I pushed on in the final kilometre. I'm going to London to race at the Olympic venue next week at the Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship race before heading to Cyprus to prepare for the Grand Final on Australia's Gold Coast."

Russian men on the podium at Tiszaujvaros ITU Triathlon World Cup (Photo: Janos Schmidt / triathlon.org)

"My summer has gone very well," said Brukhankov. "I'm much faster than I was last year, but I was hoping for the win today, maybe there was a bit of fatigue still in my legs from the Hamburg Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Series race from two weeks ago. Dmitry [Polyansky] and I lead right from the start of the run and so we backed off and just looked to maintain the lead. We have the same coach so for him it doesn't matter who wins, but I felt a bit tired in the final kilometre and couldn't respond."

"My swimming is not very strong so I expected a really hard ride out there today, but I am very confident in my running ability," commented Tutukin. "I knew I had a chance once I got off the bike with the leaders. Turbaevskiy and Polikarpenko are very experienced and strong runners but I knew that I had a chance and I took it."

Tiszaujvaros ITU Triathlon World Cup, Hungary

1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run

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