 Richard Murray skips over the line to win New Plymouth in 2015(Photo: Scottie T Photography; click to enlarge) |
The men’s field for this weekend’s Quality Hotel Plymouth International ITU World Cup Triathlon is again shaping as world class as one of the best World Cup fields assembles for the ‘Sprint by the Mountain’ on Sunday, with many chasing ranking points in Olympic year.
The men’s field sees representation from an incredible 30 countries in what must surely rank as the most international event ever to come to the Taranaki region, in the process showcasing the region around the world through social media and mainstream media reporting.
Leading the international contenders is world number 3 Richard Murray (South Africa), Aaron Royle (Australia, 10th on ITU points rankings), Alexander Bryukhankov (Russia – 17), and Irving Perez (Mexico – 23), with Murray looking to defend the title he won impressively in 2015 when he served a 15 second penalty on the run and still won with ease.
Wanaka’s Tony Dodds ended 2015 as New Zealand’s leading male athlete and he has confirmed that he will be amongst those on the start line in New Plymouth as he plans a strong start to the ITU racing season, with qualification for the Rio Olympics high on his agenda.
“New Plymouth will be my first hit out of the season and a lead in to some of the big WTS events early in the year. I am aiming for Cape Town as my first World Series event, so New Plymouth is the perfect hit out beforehand.
“I have only raced there once before, a couple of years ago and I crashed so I am obviously hoping for a better outcome! The course is brilliant, the bike suits me quite well with a niggly hill in it on each lap and has the potential for a breakaway scenario where if you do manage to get away, the rest of the field can’t see you.”
 Tony Dodds is looking for a strong start to his season(Photo: Delly Carr / ITU; click to enlarge) |
Dodds has been easing back into his work this summer as he overcomes a nagging hip injury from the end of last season and admits that New Plymouth is not a result-focused event for him, more a case of executing a good race plan.
“Once later in the week rolls around I'll assess what I want to do on the individual swim bike and run legs. The result is not the focus for the moment though, that will come in the WTS events to follow.
“Olympic year is always a funny year, everyone is trying very hard at the start of the season, either to earn points to qualify for Rio or to get starts in bigger races, or simply to find good form. The first few races see people wanting to qualify early, get points and then back off with bigger targets later in the year. We are also trying to hold off but you still want a good result on the day.”
Dodds readily admits that he has not been one to race within himself in the past, often getting caught up in the moment and allowing the competitive juices to take over.
“I like to race, I don’t often set out to get a ‘good result’ – I go out to try and win all the time, I don’t like to settle for anything less and if I am not going to win I like to try something, so I am usually being aggressive.
“Every athlete and coach is different – like Ryan (Sissons) said after Abu Dhabi, he was going for a top eight and settled for that and achieved his goal but felt afterwards he could have pushed on a little more in hindsight. I need to hold myself back in races sometimes to do that, conserve energy and the like, but I never want to settle and often find myself caught up in the ‘racing’ side of things.”
Sissons will also be lining up on Sunday, with his schedule changing on the back of that strong result in Abu Dhabi. The two leading New Zealanders will be amongst seven wearing the silver fern on race day, amongst them Oceania Championships Junior silver medalist Dan Hoy (Auckland) making his debut appearance at World Cup level and former National Talent Squad member Fynn Thompson (Queenstown) looks to continue his push for selection to the U23 team for the World Champs later in the year as he too debuts at a World Cup. Sam Osborne (Rotorua) also lines up after competing at the recent Sovereign Oceania Championships in Gisborne while National Talent Squad athlete Trent Thorpe (Auckland) will also mark his first ITU World Cup event in New Plymouth while Andrew Lloyd (Papamoa) is also suiting up on Sunday.
“I wasn’t planning on racing here,” said Sissons. “I was going to race Gold Coast WTS but Abu Dhabi changed that, so it is quite nice to have a little less pressure and be able to race at home in New Plymouth, I am going to enjoy it for sure.
“I definitely wanted to race at this time, it was a case of choosing where and once Gold Coast was not a must do for me, I made the call to race here in New Plymouth, it was an easy call to make. I like the course and the location, I have had some good and some bad races here, Sunday will be another good day I’m sure.
“But it is just nice to race at home in a good quality field. I can just turn up when I need to that best suits my race preparation, put the bike in the car and drive, no hassles. I wanted to race Gold Coast too but my Coach decided to focus on here and continue with the good training we have been getting in.”
