It was a disappointing day for the New Zealanders at the ITU World Triathlon Series race in Stockholm this morning, with Tony Dodds 31st, Ryan Sissons 33rd and Martin Van Barneveld failing to finish.
 2013 ITU World Triathlon Stockholm(Photo: Janos Schmidt / ITU; click to enlarge) |
Both Dodds and Sissons were left vowing to find improvements ahead of the Series Grand Final in London in three weeks on a day when Alistair Brownlee found yet another way to win. The London Olympics gold medallist felt he didn't have the running legs today so made a solo break on the final lap of the bike to establish a 22 second lead heading on to the run, a lead that proved vital as Javier Gomez ran 29.02 for second place with Jonathan Brownlee finishing third.
The result drops Sissons to 11th heading into the Grand Final in London and will need a strong result with the extra points on the line to move back inside the top ten on year end world rankings.
The athletes faced a late and unusual course change in Stockholm with the bike leg extended to 10 laps from the planned 9 due to an oil spill on the road, forcing organisers to take the only sensible action open to them to reduce the lap distance, add another lap to complete the 40km and avoid the risk of the bike leg turning right on the point where the oil spill had occurred.
