7.30am
New Zealander Bevan Docherty took out the ITU world triathlon championship today after a fierce sprint in Madeira, Portugal.
Docherty produced a gutsy final burst to roll Spain's 2002 world champion Ivan Rana and become the first New Zealander since the legendary Erin Baker to win a world triathlon championship.
Docherty, 24,
beat Rana by just one second at the finish. "It was all on with 100 metres to go," Docherty said.
It capped a brilliant performance by New Zealand triathletes, with three home in the top 10 -- Hamish Carter in sixth and Shane Reed in seventh.
Docherty clocked one hour 41 minutes 5 seconds for the 1.5km swim, 40km cycle and 10km run, with Kazakhstan's Dimitry Gaag, the 1999 world champion, third a further 12 seconds behind.
Athens Olympian Simon Thompson (1:43.52) was Australia's leading finisher back in 28th place, with Bryce Quirk (1:44.11) 30th.
Docherty stuck rigidly to the race plan set by coach Mark Elliott, and responded to the final surge by Rana to grab victory by five metres after the pair had raced side-by-side for the last 5kms.
"Wow this is just incredible. It was an incredible race. I just kept to my race plan," the Taupo triathlete said.
"I didn't want it to come down to a sprint because I was not so confident that I could sprint over someone like Rana. But maybe now I have got a sprint.
"It is just so amazing. I went totally ballistic after I won. It's a dream come true.
"My confidence definitely picked up after my world cup win at Ishigaki, Japan.
"I've trained really hard with Kris Gemmell over the last three weeks in France and I've gone to another level.
"I really put it all together today. Roll on Athens. This is just an awesome feeling."
With Australian champion Craig Walton a non-starter, all five New Zealanders were out of the water led by Auckland's Nathan Richmond at the front of a bunch of 43 athletes who formed the lead pack for the eight-lap 40km bike.
The big group managed to remain clear of the chase bunch, with no breakaways successful on the telling 1km climb on each lap.
Docherty, Rana and Kazakhstan's 2000 world champion Dimitry Gaag jumped to the front of the field out of transition for the four-lap 10km run, closely followed by former world duathlon champion Tim Don (Britain), Javier Gomez (Spain) and Carter, who pushed up to fourth place with a lap remaining.
Docherty and Rana dropped Gaag on the final lap, before the New Zealander produced a magnificent sprint to claim the honours, while Carter faded slightly in the final lap to finish a highly creditable sixth, and Reed seventh.
Earlier New Zealand's Samantha Warriner produced her best world championship performance, climbing into the top-15 for the first time.
Encouragingly for her Athens Olympic hopes, she made strong ground on the run, bagging the seventh best run time of 34:45 for the 10km split, although with extremely fast overall times, there were some concerns that both the bike and run courses were short.
Another Kiwi Evelyn Williamson, after an indifferent swim, worked hard to ride up to the chase pack which was 50 seconds down on the leaders after the 40km bike.
The Kapiti Coast triathlete was unable to force her way through on the 10km run, finishing 25th overall to end her faint Olympic hopes.
She needed to finish eighth or better to gain sufficient ranking points to earn a second Olympic women's spot for New Zealand.
American Sheila Taormina grabbed her Olympic spot with an impressive victory, jumping to a 25-second advantage after the two-lap swim, and extending that to 45 seconds early in the bike.
However the American decided to wait for the small chase group of eight athletes but was able to break clear over the final two laps on the run for her first world championship title.
Australian former world champion Loretta Harrop made a welcome return to top form after prolonged injury to finish second ahead of American Laura Reback, who repeated her third placing from December's world championships in Queenstown.
The day started well for New Zealand with Auckland's Debbie Tanner fifth and New Plymouth's Clark Ellice ninth as the best performers in the elite under-23 races.
Tanner produced a strong performance for her best-ever finish at the world championships.
She led the chase pack out of the 1.5km swim 40 seconds down on a lead group of five, and was prominent in the 15-strong bunch that formed behind runaway Australian Annabel Luxford on the eight-lap, 40km bike.
Czech Republic's Vendula Frintova set off to chase down the 2min 25sec buffer to the Australian on the 10km run reducing the margin to 38 seconds at the finish, with Tanner nestled in fourth place over the first 6kms.
She faded a little on the third lap but held on strongly on the final lap for fifth.
Teammates Whiting (Auckland) and Taryn McLeod (Dunedin) finished 19th and 24th respectively.
Ellice ran into the top-10 in the men's under-23 race after a strong performance. He was 40 seconds down out of the swim and at the back of a lead bunch of 28 after the bike, but fought his way through the field to finish ninth.
Auckland's Sam Walker was 15th, Luke Hoetjes (Christchurch) 30th and Will Green (Auckland) 35th.
Yesterday New Zealand won six medals including three golds in age group and junior elite racing.
The wins were in the age groups to Lynne Pattle (North Harbour), Auckland's Peter Wood and Wellington's Sam Mallard, while Dunedin's Sarah Bryant took out a silver in the elite under-19 championship.
Double world junior triathlon champion Terenzo Bozzone was expected to figure prominently in the elite boys' under-19 race but he gave up any chance of a third successive win in the event when he stopped to help a stricken teammate.
In the lead bunch on the bike, Bozzone stopped when his North Harbour clubmate Ben Pattle suffered a severe asthma attack, and eventually settled for 35th place.
Australian Brittany Orr won by 30 seconds after the demanding 20km ride.
Results
UNDER-23
Men: Sebastian Dehmer (Germany) 1:44:01 1, Jan Frodeno (Germany) 1:44:42 2, Ruedi Wild (Switzerland) 1:44:46 3.
New Zealanders: Clark Ellice (New Plymouth) 1:45:46 9, Sam Walker (Auckland) 1:47:03 15, Luke Hoetjes (Christchurch) 1:49:22, 30, Will Green (Auckland) 1:51:27, 35.
Women (1.5km swim 40km bike 10km run): Annabel Luxford (Australia) 1:56:28 1, Vendula Frintova (Czech) 1:57.06 2, Virginue Jouve (France) 1:57:40 3.
New Zealanders: Debbie Tanner (Auckland) 1:59:42 5, Kirsty Whiting (Auckland) 2:06:55 19, Taryn McLeod (Dunedin) 2:12:05 24.
OPEN RESULTS
Men: Bevan Docherty (NZ) 1:41:04.4 1, Ivan Rana (Spain) 1:41:05.2 2, Dimitry Gaag (Kazakhstan) 1:41:18.0 3,; Tim Don (Britain) 1:41:37.1 4, Igor Sysoev (Russia) 1:41:37.2 5, Hamish Carter (NZ) 1:41:41.1 6, Shane Reed (NZL) 1:41:41.3 7.
Other New Zealanders: Kris Gemmell (Christchurch) 1:43:06.2 19, Nathan Richmond (Auckland) 1:45:19.3 39.
Women: Sheila Taormina (USA) 1:52:18 1, Loretta Harrop (Australia) 1:52:30 2, Laura Reback (USA) 1:53:01 3.
New Zealanders: Samantha Warriner (Whangarei) 1:55:08 13, Evelyn Williamson (Kapiti Coast) 1:56:56 25, Shanelle Barrett (Taupo) did not start.
- NZPA
7.30am
New Zealander Bevan Docherty took out the ITU world triathlon championship today after a fierce sprint in Madeira, Portugal.
Docherty produced a gutsy final burst to roll Spain's 2002 world champion Ivan Rana and become the first New Zealander since the legendary Erin Baker to win a world triathlon championship.
Docherty, 24,
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