Triathlon: Gemmell wins bronze

New Zealand triathlete Kris Gemmell ran a superb 10km to claim bronze at the latest round of the ITU triathlon world championship series in London yesterday.

Gemmell found himself sandwiched between two Germans in the closing stages of the race. While he was beaten to the line by Steffen Justus, the gutsy New Zealander dipped to grab the final podium position ahead of Sebastien Rank.

All three once again played second fiddle to a dominant Alistair Brownlee, as the young Brit won for the third time in the series to take a stranglehold over the rankings with just Yokohama and the Gold Coast left in the season.

Gemmell and the other New Zealanders found themselves slightly off the pace out of the water, part of a large chase group on the bike about 48 seconds behind a lead group of 12 that included Brownlee and former world No 1 Javier Gomez of Spain.

But excellent work in the chase group saw the leaders slowly but surely reined in before the completion of the 40km and the start of the flat and fast 10km run around Hyde Park.

Gemmell was pleased with another consistent performance, one that has him well set up for a big race on the Gold Coast in the season finale next month.

"That was a really good race; I'm happy and heading in the right direction with the last couple of races left in the season. This will again improve my ranking and shows that the training I have done has worked.

"Alistair ran 29m 30s today and when he changes gears like that ... I just can't run that time at the moment. I have run sub-30 today off some big miles, but the difference is so small. I'll continue to work hard and look for the extra 10 per cent in the final two races and have a big day on the Gold Coast."

The women's race was won by Switzerland's Nicola Spirig by a narrow margin over Lisa Norden of Sweden and British hope Helen Jenkins. The New Zealand women put in strong performances: Debbie Tanner finished eighth and Andrea Hewitt ninth.

Kate McIlroy continued her good form in her first year in the sport with 12th, a week after winning a World Cup race in Hungary. Nicky Samuels was 24th and Rebecca Spence 39th.

Hewitt is third in the overall rankings following yesterday's race, while Tanner moves up to 16th and McIlroy to 19th. Samuels drops slightly to 25th.

- NZPA