ITU World Triathlon Series

Brownlee Destroys Field in Spain

31 May 2009

Your video is loading. If the video fails to load please upgrade your Flash player

2009 Madrid Men

Although the men’s race lacked the excitement of a sprint finish it too provided some exceptionally compelling competition as talented young Brit, Alistair Brownlee, put himself on the map with a dominant performance in the men’s competition whilst 2008 world champion, Javier Gomez, returned to the Caso de Campo in front of an expectant home crowd.

Having acquired an ankle injury following the Olympic Games in Beijing, Gomez had been out of shape in recent weeks, finishing second behind Russia’s Dmitry Polyansky at the European Cup race in his hometown of Pontevedra, and so elected to push the pace on the swim and bike to establish an advantage.

The Russian quartet of Polyansky, Brukhankov and the Vasiliev brothers, Ivan and Denis, were more than happy to oblige with their fair share of the opening work as they carved apart the swim and formed an early break away on the cycle. Along with them went Australian veteran Courtney Atkinson who started his season with wins at the Mooloolaba and Ishigaki World Cup races, Germany’s Maik Petzold and Brownlee who made up part of an eleven man pack.

Brownlee was never content to sit and wait for the chasers to make contact and launched repeat attacks to up the tempo forcing the athletes around him to work hard in keeping the pace honest. With indecision and reluctance in the following group to expend the valuable energy to close down the early advantage, the leaders were able to increase their time advantage to over 90 seconds, a time they were able to maintain throughout the bike.

Behind it was Britain’s Tim Don who did much of the legwork along with Beijing Olympic gold medallist, Jan Frodeno from Germany. Tongyeong runner-up, Brad Kahlefeldt from Australia also sat towards the fore as they were caught by the smaller second chase pack which included the USA’s Jarrod Shoemaker.

With the leaders arriving in second transition with a 1:27 advantage the podium positions were already out of reach for the chasers with Kahlefeldt posting the best performance to move up into ninth with Frodeno in tenth.

However the crowd’s attention was affixed firmly on the flying Brownlee who exited transition with such grit and determination that he had opened up a 24 second advantage after the first of the four 2.5km laps. The relaxed running style took him away from the chasing Gomez, Atkinson and Petzold who looked to struggle in the increasing heat in comparison with the young Brit.

Gomez worked hard and finally dropped Petzold after 7.5km, however the relentless Atkinson held on to the Spaniard’s coattails as he sat in for a sprint finish.

Brownlee could afford to cruise to the finish as he crossed the line in 1:51:27, some 48 seconds ahead of the Aussie who kicked early to beat the home favourite by just five seconds. Petzold held on for fourth with Ivan Vasiliev in fifth.

“It was the perfect race for me really,” said Brownlee, the reigning under 23 world champion. “Everything seemed to go right from the start, I couldn’t believe it. I had a fantastic swim next to Vasiliev and he just took me from there. The first two bike laps were really hard as we settled into a good group and someone said we had 45 seconds and I thought ‘where did that come from?’; and then when it was 1:30. I couldn’t believe it.
“I went off on the run and I thought, ‘right I’m going to make this hard after the tough bike’ and before I knew it I had thirty seconds. I thought I was going to blow up on that last lap, but it was great to hold on.”

Atkinson was pleased with his second place: “It panned out as well as I could have imagined,” he exclaimed. “With the early break on the bike I really pushed hard to make sure it stuck, and then went for it on the run. Alistair had an amazing race and we’ve good a bit of work to do to get up to him. It’s great to see the young guys racing like that.”
“It was very hard but I am happy with my third,” admitted Gomez. “This winter was very hard with no running. I only started a month ago and now I think I’m only at 70%, so to hit the podium was amazing. It was largely thanks to the support from the crowd here in Madrid - thank you to Spain!”
“I know I will only get better and so I will next race in Washington and will run faster, and then try to be 100% for the European races in the summer and hope to catch Alistair.”

A seventh place finish in Madrid, combined with his bronze medal in Tongyeong moves Dmitry Polyansky from Russia ahead of New Zealand’s Bevan Docherty to as he leads the men’s standings with 1186pts. That places him 17 points ahead of Australia’s Brad Kahlefeldt with fellow Aussie Atkinson moving into third.

2009 Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Rankings
After Race Two of Eight
1. Dmitry Polyansky (RUS) 1186pts
2. Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) 1169pts
3. Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 1137pts
4. Alexander Brukhankov (RUS) 1043pts
5. Kris Gemmell (NZL) 911pts

2009 Madrid Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship
1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run
Elite Men - Official Results
Gold – Alistair Brownlee (GBR) 1:51:27
Silver – Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 1:52:14 +0:48
Bronze –Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:52:19 +0:53
4th – Maik Petzold (GER) 1:52:32 +1:06
5th – Ivan Vasiliev (RUS) 1:52:39 +1:13
6th – Alexander Brukhankov (RUS) 1:52:45 +1:18
7th – Dmitry Polyansky (RUS) 1:53:08 +1:41
8th – Christian Prochnow (GER) 1:53:17 +1:50
9th – Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) 1:53:18 +1:52
10th – Jan Frodeno (GER) 2:53:19 +1:53

Click here for full Results

Click here for full Race Galleries

La joven estrella de 21 años de edad de Gran Bretaña, Alistair Brownlee, ha comenzado su campaña en las Series de los Campeonatos del Mundo de Triatlón ITU Dextro Energy 2009 a lo grande, tras escaparse del Campeón del Mundo de 2008, el español Javier Gómez, para ganar con un tiempo de 1:51:27 en Madrid, España.

El ruso Dmitry Polyansky se sitúa por delante del neozelandés Bevan Docherty en la Clasificación General de las Series de los Campeonatos del Mundo de Triatlón ITU Dextro Energy con un total de 1186 puntos.

Brownlee parecía animado desde la salida, poniendo un ritmo muy alto en los 1500m de la natación, antes de atacar repetidamente en el trazado montañoso de 40km del segmento de la bicicleta, lo que le sirvió para establecer un pequeño grupo de tan sólo siete atletas entre los que estaban el favorito local Gómez y el experimentado australiano Courtney Atkinson.
Sin embargo fue en la carrera a pie donde el británico impresionó ya que no tuvo rival. Después de los primeros 2,5km tenía 30 segundos de ventaja y continuó aumentándola hasta los 48segundos y de este modo hacerse con su primera victoria en las series mundiales ITU. A pesar de no haber ganado una carrera de las series mundiales antes, Brownlee ha tenido un notable éxito anteriormente, ganando los campeonatos del mundo junior en 2006 y los campeonatos del mundo Sub23 en 2008.

Gómez, quien regresaba a la acción tras una lesión de tobillo que se produjo después de los Juegos Olímpicos de 2008, perdió la medalla de plata a favor de Atkinson, que logró el segundo puesto y su noveno pódium en las últimas diez carreras. El español hizo tercero, mientras que el alemán Maik Petzold y el ruso Ivan Vasiliev hicieron cuarto y quinto respectivamente. El campeón Olímpico, el alemán Jan Frodeno, terminó décimo tras llegar con el segundo grupo.

“Ha sido una carrera perfecta para mí,” dijo Brownlee. “Todo parecía ir bien desde el inicio, no podía creerlo. Tuve una fantástica natación al lado de Vasiliev y desde allí él me llevó a rueda. Las dos primeras vueltas de la bicicleta fueron realmente duras ya que nos organizamos en un buen grupo y alguien nos dijo que teníamos 45 segundos de ventaja y pensé “¿de dónde ha salido esa ventaja?”; y luego cuando pasó a ser de 1:30 no me lo podía creer.

Cuando inicié la carrera a pie pensé, “tengo que endurecer la carrera a pie después de un segmento de bicicleta tan duro y después supe que tenía treinta segundos de ventaja. Pensé que iba a explotar en esa última vuelta, pero pude aguantar.”

Atkinson estaba encantado con su segundo puesto: “Ha sido un éxito que no me podía imaginar,” comentó. “Con los primeros ataques en la bicicleta yo realmente trabajé para asegurar ir juntos y luego ir a por todas en la carrera a pie. Alistair ha hecho una carrera increíble y nosotros hemos trabajado bien para darle caza. Es genial ver competir a los chicos jóvenes como lo ha hecho él.”
“Ha sido una carrera muy dura, pero estoy contento con mi tercer puesto,” dijo Gómez. “Este invierno ha sido muy duro sin poder correr. Empecé hace sólo un mes y creo que ahora estoy sólo al 70%, por lo que lograr un pódium ha sido increíble. En gran parte ha sido gracias al apoyo de la afición que se ha dado cita aquí en Madrid, ¡gracias a España!”

“Sé que mejoraré y en la próxima carrera en Washington correré más rápido e intentaré estar al 100% en las próximas carreras europeas y espero coger a Alistair.”

Clasificación General de las Series de los Campeonatos del Mundo de Triatlón Dextro Energy 2009
Despues de la segunda de las ocho carreras
1. Dmitry Polyansky (RUS) 1186pts
2. Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) 1169pts
3. Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 1137pts
4. Alexander Brukhankov (RUS) 1043pts
5. Kris Gemmell (NZL) 911pts

Campeonato del Mundo de Triatlón ITU 2009 Dextro Energy de Madrid
1.5km natación, 40km bicicleta, 10km carrera a pie
Elite Masculina –Resultados Oficiales
Oro – Alistair Brownlee (GBR) 1:51:27
Plata – Courtney Atkinson (AUS) 1:52:14 +0:48
Bronce –Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:52:19 +0:53
4th – Maik Petzold (GER) 1:52:32 +1:06
5th – Ivan Vasiliev (RUS) 1:52:39 +1:13
6th – Alexander Brukhankov (RUS) 1:52:45 +1:18
7th – Dmitry Polyansky (RUS) 1:53:08 +1:41
8th – Christian Prochnow (GER) 1:53:17 +1:50
9th – Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) 1:53:18 +1:52
10th – Jan Frodeno (GER) 2:53:19 +1:53