By SUZANNE McFADDEN
The thin mountain air has done wonders for New Zealand's Olympic triathletes, who came home in the winning bunch yesterday in the last World Cup event before Sydney.
Hamish Carter, Craig Watson and Evelyn Williamson came down from altitude to swim, cycle and run in Lausanne, Switzerland - and
all returned up the mountain yesterday with top-four finishes.
Carter and Watson were in a breakaway trio on the final run and crossed the line only seconds behind defending champion Andrew Johns, of England. Williamson had her best performance of the year, finishing fourth in the women's race, marginally behind the world No 1, Australian Michellie Jones.
The New Zealanders have spent a month training at high altitude, which improves their recovery rate. They will have one more week before returning home on the eve of the Olympics.
Coach Jack Ralston said the altitude training had been planned around yesterday's race and the Sydney Games.
"There are two ways of getting great results from altitude - to race the first day down from the mountain, like they did in Lausanne, or 19 to 21 days later," he said.
"We timed it so the Olympics are on our day 20.
"The most pleasing thing from these results is that all of them are coming right at the right time."
In the men's race, Carter was one of the first swimmers out of the water and was joined by Watson on the run. They ran two of the three laps with Johns, who broke away in the final few kilometres.
"Hamish really had to push himself hard through the race, but he recovered so quickly," Ralston said. "He's really pleased with the way things went, and all of them just have to fine-tune now before Sydney."
Williamson was in the front pack after an aggressive swim leg and finished the race just over a minute behind winner Siri Lindley, who is also coached by Ralston and is the reserve for the United States Olympic team.
The New Zealanders have one more race, in Zurich in a fortnight, before flying home, where they will meet the fourth member of the team, Ben Bright, who has chosen to do his build-up in Christchurch.
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