Triathlon: Docherty talks up medal chances

3.30pm - By DANIEL GILHOOLY

ATHENS - If confidence is any guide, triathlete Bevan Docherty is primed to follow the lead of New Zealand's golden girls and transfer a world championship title into Olympic glory on Thursday.

Compatriots Hamish Carter and Nathan Richmond also arrived in Athens on Saturday after what Docherty described as a "perfect" month-long team preparation in France.

They have bunkered down at their house in the coastal Vouliagmeni district where the men's race is held on Thursday morning (Thursday 1900 NZT), although Docherty visited the athletes village on Sunday night.

Cyclist Sarah Ulmer received a rousing reception when she arrived back to the New Zealand quarters.

"That was pretty memorably moment, pretty inspiring. Hopefully it drives me a little bit more to get a medal," Docherty told NZPA.

Ulmer and rowers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell added Olympic gold medals to their world championship crowns at these Games. Docherty is the third New Zealander with a chance to do so and the kayaker Ben Fouhy on Friday is the fourth.

Docherty, 27, said there were a number of reasons for the New Zealand team to be optimistic, not least the challenging nature of the 1500m swim, 40km cycle and 10km course.

He was eyeing up the 700m hill climb in the cycling leg with a glint in his eye. They will have to scale it five times and then the run leg was also undulating.

"If we wanted to design a course that suited us, we couldn't do it any better," Docherty said.

"It is a really fair course and definitely a true triathlete will win at the end of the day. I've worked hard on all three disciplines and I feel I'm starting to peak in all three."

He believed the hill would sap strength from the best runners such as defending champion Simon Whitfield of Canada.

The course is even tougher than at Madeira, Portugal, where Docherty pipped Spain's Ivan Rana to lift this year's world title in May.

"I'm fit enough so hopefully a tough course will affect others more than me," he said.

"I am very confident. I know deep down if I'm going into a race feeling confident, I'm going to have a good race.

"Just before world champs I was fairly confident of cracking the top three. It just takes determination and a little bit of luck to get that top spot."

He didn't expect the late morning heat to be a problem here, having competed mostly in hot conditions all year and spent a sweltering few weeks in France.

Despite their camaraderie, Docherty said the New Zealanders hadn't planned to race as a team.

"The nature of the course is so demanding that it's very hard to work as a team," he said.

"There's going to be so much going on that you have to look after No 1 pretty much. We're all in good shape so you can pretty much guarantee we'll be there at the end."

Carter, 33, is desperate to improve on his substandard performance at the Sydney Olympics while Richmond will want to prove his selection in the hotly-contested third spot was justified.

Richmond has climbed to fourth in the World Cup rankings, two places behind Docherty, who was recently usurped to No 2 in the world by Dmitry Gaag of Kazakhstan.

Gaag is among a host of quality athletes lining up, including Australians Peter Robertson and Greg Bennett.

Whitfield was a surprise winner at Sydney 2000, with pre-race favourite and four-time world champion Lessing barely featuring.

Docherty wondered if his rivals took the fickle nature of the sport into account in devising their tactics.

"Everybody is targeting me but if they just look at me, other people can get away. The nature of the course is that if someone's fit enough, they won't need to worry about other people."

Docherty's sister Fiona arrived in Athens yesterday, along with parents Ray and Irene. He shouted his parents' flights here to repay the financial support they provided early in his career.

- NZPA