It was Astana’s debut on the ITU World Cup stage on the weekend, with three of our Australian athletes lining up in the Kazakhstan capital.
With temperatures dropping overnight (water temperature at 11.9C and air temperature 2C) World Triathlon and the LOC ruled that the women’s race would be a duathlon, inline with ITU rules. The format for the Standard distance event then became a 5km run, 40km bike and 10km run format.
Tamsyn Moana-Veale positioned herself well in the first run to be among the lead pack in the bike. She backed this up with a solid second run and strong final 5km to move up from 13th place to finish in seven place, narrowly missing 6th place in a sprint finish with Gillian Sanders.
Sandra Dodet of France took 1st place from fellow French athlete Emilie Morier and Angelica Olmo (ITA) in third.
Conditions improved for the Men’s event, meaning the Standard Distance triathlon could take place. Marcel Walkington was 7th out ofthe water, joining with eight other competitors to form the front pack for the duration of the 40km ride. Luke Burns was amongst the chase pack.
Walkington was joined by Schomburg (GER) and Raphael(FRA) to take the lead out of the final transition. Walkington stayed in touch the entire run leg, dropping Schomburg and eventually Raphael; however, it was Russia’s Dmitry Polyanskiy who took the line honours in the final stretch ahead of Walkington in second and and Raphael in third.
Burns was just over a minute behind to take 16th place in the men’s event.
Read the full wrap from World Triathlon
Photo Credit: Janos Schmidt | ITU Media
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