Ryan Sissons (Auckland) and Tony Dodds (Wanaka) finished one-two at the ITU Oceania Sprint Triathlon Championships in Kinloch, with the .kiwi Tri Series race doubling as the New Zealand championships.
Dodds led out of the water but it was Tom Davison (Christchurch) who shook up the field on the bike, passing Dodds and teenager Tayler Reid (Gisborne) to establish a one minute lead going into the run. Davison is cycling superbly on the back of his third place finish at the recent New Zealand road cycling nationals and showed great strength and form again today before fading on the run leg.
 Tony Dodds(Photo: Triathlon NZ; click to enlarge) |
Sissons though paced his effort superbly, taking the lead with Tony Dodds by his side with 2.5km to run and then easing clear in the closing stages.
"Tom had an amazing ride as was expected; he had a good minute off the bike," said Sissons. "Doddsy me and Brendan Sexton rode together and I felt pretty comfortable the whole way. I then settled nicely into the run, ran with Doddsy and made a move a kilometre out.
"I just felt comfortable today, I'm feeling pretty fit and while I didn't have amazing swim I know there is work to do there. On the bike I felt good and on the run felt really comfortable and knew I had to pick up pace a kilometre out and put the hammer down and got a gap on Tony and pulled away.
"I am stoked to win New Zealand and Oceania title and while early in the season it shows we have been doing a lot of good training with the Tri NZ HP team led by Greg (Fraine), Jon (Brown) and Tim (Brazier). It is certainly working and we stepped up this weekend, we were clearly the strongest and it is great to see that hard work paying off. It was the same in women's race with Sophie dominating too."
Dodds was pleased with his day's work, albeit like Sissons knows that there are 'work-on's'.
"That was alright, the swim was perfect, I led and then didn't know what to do. I kept the pace on with Tayler Reid for a little, then TD (Tom Davison) caught up and I thought here we go! His cycling is out of this world at the moment and when he pushed on the uphill I made a decision to wait for Ryan and Brendan, I think it was the best idea, next time it would be good to go with Tom though. I then had a mishap in transition, kicked off shoe and had to go back but the run was superb, we have been doing a lot of speed work and running lately, Ryan just had legs over last five hundred metres.
"That is great for the confidence though and the work we are doing. There was a little question mark over my bike, but we will go back and keep working, thinks are great for this early stage of the season."
Davison rounded out an impressive day and return to ITU racing after a year off in non drafting events, holding his form to finish 4th behind Sexton and ahead of Frenchman Etienne Diemunsch.
Results: .kiwi Tri Series, Kinloch, Taupo
Elite Men
1. Ryan Sissons (Auckland) 1:02:01
2. Tony Dodds (Wanaka) 1:02:07
3. Brendan Sexton Australia) 1:02:28
4. Tom Davison (Christchurch) 1:02:39
5. Etienne Diemunsch (France) 1:03:21
