Multisport: Sissons keeps pace to win out

Ryan Sissons and Sophie Corbidge winning the elite Oceania Sprint Triathlon Championship titles at Kinloch. Photo/Daryl Carey

Ryan Sissons (Auckland) and Tony Dodds (Wanaka) finished one-two at the ITU Oceania Sprint Triathlon Championships in Kinloch.

The tri series race, doubling as the New Zealand championships, started with Dodds leading out of the water but it was Tom Davison (Christchurch) who shook up the field on the bike, passing Dodds and teenager Tayler Reid (Gisborne) to establish a one-minute lead going into the run.

Davison is cycling superbly on the back of his third-place finish at the recent New Zealand road cycling nationals and showed great strength and form again at the weekend, before fading on the run leg.

Sissons, though, paced his effort superbly, taking the lead with Tony Dodds by his side with 2.5km to run and then easing clear in the closing stages.

"Tom had an amazing ride as was expected; he had a good minute off the bike," said Sissons. "Doddsy, me and Brendan Sexton rode together and I felt pretty comfortable the whole way. I then settled nicely into the run, ran with Doddsy and made a move a kilometre out.

"I just felt comfortable, I'm feeling pretty fit and while I didn't have amazing swim I know there is work to do there. On the bike I felt good and on the run felt really comfortable and knew I had to pick up pace a kilometre out and put the hammer down and got a gap on Tony and pulled away.

"I am stoked to win New Zealand and Oceania title and, while early in the season, it shows we have been doing a lot of good training with the Tri NZ HP team led by Greg (Fraine), Jon (Brown) and Tim (Brazier). It is certainly working and we stepped up this weekend, we were clearly the strongest and it is great to see that hard work paying off. It was the same in women's race with Sophie dominating too."

Dodds was pleased with his day's work and, like Sissons, knows that there are "work-ons".

"That was alright, the swim was perfect, I led and then didn't know what to do. I kept the pace on with Tayler Reid for a little, then TD (Tom Davison) caught up and I thought here we go.

"His cycling is out of this world at the moment and when he pushed on the uphill I made a decision to wait for Ryan and Brendan, I think it was the best idea, next time it would be good to go with Tom though. I then had a mishap in transition," he said.

"But the run was superb, we have been doing a lot of speed work and running lately, Ryan just had legs over last 500m.

"That is great for the confidence though, and the work we are doing. There was a little question mark over my bike, but we will go back and keep working, things are great for this early stage of the season."

Davison rounded out an impressive day and return to ITU racing after a year off in non-drafting events, holding his form to finish 4th behind Sexton and ahead of Frenchman Etienne Diemunsch.

Meanwhile, Sophie Corbidge (Auckland) added the open elite title to her 2013 U23 win when taking out the women's division.

Corbidge raced superbly to ride away from the field on the bike, establishing a gap that could not be bridged by Ellen Pennock (Canada) over the 5km run, with Fiona Crombie (Christchurch) posting a strong run to grab the final place on the podium.

Corbidge said she was aware her lead was being eaten away during the run.

"I had my parents and coach Jon Brown telling me on course that Ellen was closing, I worked really hard on the bike and knew that it would hurt, but at the same time it was the same for everyone so I went out there with one aim, to get to the finish line first and I knew she was closing so I just found an extra gear to the finish line."