Auckland crash adds to Sexton's year of woes

By

October 21, 2012

Australia’s London Olympian Brendan Sexton was just one of the victims of the horrendous conditions that created havoc at the ITU World Triathlon Championships in Auckland today.

The 22-year-old crashed and fell to the road early in the 40km bike leg as he pushed himself to get back in touch with the leaders in the Elite Men’s race, leaving his right arm severely grazed as riders battled the driving rain.

The torrential rain made for slippery and at times hazardous conditions in the Elite Men’s as well as for the inexperienced Junior Women and Junior Men’s competitors.

But to his credit, Sexton, the lone Australian in the Elite Men’s division, picked himself up and finished in 30th place in a race that claimed five victims with a DNF.

Grimacing in pain through the remainder of the bike and the 10km run, Sexton was shattered as he crossed the line after setting himself for a big finish to what has been a year of highs and lows after making his first Olympic team.

“The simple fact of the matter was I just wasn't able to keep pace on the bike. I crashed trying to get back to my group taking more risk than I would if I was physically stronger,” said Sexton who gave an honest appraisal of what he described as a disappointing end to the year after finishing 35th in his Olympic debut.

“It's the end of a long, challenging and overly disappointing season.

“My preparations have been spot on spending time with Jamie Turner (Wollongong-based NSWIS coach) and his athletes the past six weeks but my body wasn't responding today.

“I will now take some time away from triathlon and plan how I can target the weaknesses that have left me at a distance from my potential.”

Sexton said he had every desire to return to his best form again, saying he’s been down before but knows he can get back up again.

After an enthralling race that saw Slovakia’s Richard Varga and his training partner Olympic bronze medallist, Great Britain’s Jonathan Brownlee open up a commanding lead in the swim and a brave effort from retiring New Zealander Kris Gemmell on the bike, it was Spain Javier Gomez who stole the honours.

Gomez, running shoulder to shoulder with Brownlee, kicked first with 250m to run before Brownlee responded but wasn’t fast enough to match Gomez with Switzerland’s Sven Riederer taking the bronze.

The World Championship Series victory went to Brownlee, who only had to podium to clinch the title from Gomez and Russian Igor Polyanskiy, adding the title, Olympic gold medal winning brother Alistair won last year in Beijing.

Meanwhile Australia’s juniors were also confronted with some of the toughest conditions they have encountered with the driving rain and slippery roads testing their bike skills.

The Junior Men’s event, over the Sprint distance of 750m swim, 20km bike and five kilometre run went to Wian Sullwald who won South Africa’s first ever ITU World title from Simon Viain (FRA) and Constantine Doherty (IRL) and claimed ten victims who came a cropper trying to negotiate the slippery corners.

Victoria’s Marcel Walkington was the best of the Australian boys in seventh followed by Kenji Nener (14th) band Joel Tobin-White (23rd) who both fought hard.

Walkington was always in the hunt after emerging from the swim in fourth place and worked away on the bike to stay out of trouble in the tricky conditions.

But he couldn’t maintain the pace in the run with Doherty charging early before Sullwald took over to the storm to the finish line.

In the women’s event Fumika Matsumoto won Japan’s first ever ITU Triathlon World title from Ledonie Periault (FRA) and Tamara Gorman (USA).

The Australian trio Ellie Salthouse, Emily Bevan and Tamsyn Moana-Veale finished 19th, 21st and 30th respectively.

As hard as they tried the Australian girls struggled to remain in touch on the bike in the difficult, testing conditions.