The New Zealand women raced impressively at the latest ITU World Triathlon Series race in Kitzbühel this morning, with Andrea Hewitt in 4th, Nicky Samuels 5th and Kate McIlroy in 11th place in the short but gruelling race above the picturesque Austrian alpine village. It was a great showing from the New Zealanders who by and large excelled in the tough conditions.
Jodie Stimpson made it a Great British double with a win that was achieved with similar dominance to Alistair Brownlee in the earlier men's race. The gritty Brit broke clear in the final 1500m on the bike and then extended her lead on the run to finish well clear of Emma Jackson (AUS) and Anne Haug (GER).
Hewitt showed great determination to stay in touch with the leaders throughout most of the bike, only losing time in the final kilometre before making up places once on the 2.5km run. Indeed Hewitt posted one of the quickest run splits on the day as she closed fast on the podium, but ultimately ran out of real estate with Haug in her sights.
Samuels was equally impressive, riding at or near the lead throughout until Stimpson made her race winning break. The Wanaka athlete was amongst a chase group of three off the bike and while she couldn't match the leg speed of Jackson and Haug, she ran strongly to hold off all but Hewitt of the challengers behind her.
McIlroy however was unable to match the pace of the lead group on the bike and gradually lost time on the leaders and narrowly missed making it three Kiwis in the top ten as she was pipped to the line by Rachel Klamer (Netherlands).
