Triathlon: Docherty wins world series opener

Bevan Docherty pips Australia's Brad Kahlefeldt in a sprint finish to win the first race of the ITU world championship Tongyeong, South Korea. Photo / ITU

New Zealander Bevan Docherty showed stunning form at Tongyeong in Korea yesterday to outlast some of the world's best triathletes and win the first race of the ITU world championship series.

Chasing Docherty home in fourth place was fellow New Zealand Kris Gemmell.

Both Kiwis had work to do heading into the final 10km run leg, conceding almost 30 seconds to Russians Dmitry Polyansky and Alexander Brukhankov and well-performed Frenchman Frederic Belubeare.

Alongside the Kiwis out of the final transition was Olympic silver medallist Simon Whitfield (Canada) and the dangerous Australian pair of Courtney Atkinson and Brad Kahlefeldt.

Docherty and Gemmell slowly but surely moved to the front of the race, hauling in the leaders with one 2.5km lap to go, in the process leaving nearly all of their much vaunted rivals behind.

Kahlefeldt could not be shaken and Polyansky stuck grimly to his task in keeping out a fast finishing Gemmell and the chasing pack.

Docherty showed his tenacity and conditioning in out-sprinting Kahlefeldt in one of the closest finishes in the history of the sport.

"Freddy (Belubeare) looked to be the big danger but we picked him up comfortably," an elated Docherty said afterwards. "To be honest I fellt average on the run, and only started felling better in the second half and for the final kilometre I felt awesome.

"I waited and employed the same tactics as Beijing and then sprinted well. Brad is one of the hardest in the sport to out run so this feels totally awesome.

"For the final 50 metres it was all on. Five metres out I edged in front but he came back, it was anyone's game and it took five minutes until they could decide using the photo finish. I think I slid on ground 10 metres after the line."

For Gemmell it was an amazing turnaround to race so strongly at the head of the field, just a month after falling heavily at the New Plymouth Continental Cup race, losing nine days of swim training and suffering heavy bruising and grazing.

In the women's race the day before, Whangarei's Sam Warriner was the best of the New Zealanders in eighth place while Nicky Samuels was 19th, Debbie Tanner 23rd and Andrea Hewitt 39th.

Both Warriner and Hewitt fell during the bike, with Hewitt in particular taking a heavy blow. Both are suffering from heavy bruising and grazing but have avoided serious injury.

- NZPA