Sissions and Holland Take The Tape in Mooloolaba
Mooloolaba Triathlon World Cup was the last event to take place over the weekend for sometime with the ITU suspending all competitions and activities until April 30 due to the worldwide spread of the Coronavirus, soon after. The exciting races on both the women’s and the men’s front left us all with something to look forward to when we eventually return to the normal calendar again.
Women’s Race
It was Vicky Holland, the 2018 World Triathlon Series world champion, who took the win with a strong run as she pulled away from compatriot Georgia Taylor Brown over the latter stages of the 5k run, coming across the line with a margin of 15 seconds. In third place was Australian Ashleigh Gentle a further 13 seconds back.
It was Australian Emma Jeffcoat who let out from the swim with American Kirsten Kasper with a gap of around 6 seconds to the next athletes Holland Taylor-Brown and Danielle De Francesco of Australia. Gentle was almost 30 seconds back when she excited the water.
Tough conditions of wind and rain on the bike meant most athletes where extremely cautious on the bike course and ultimately a group of 30 women came together before the end of the bike leg.
At lap three of the run, Holland and Taylor-Brown took a comfortable lead and t was clear the battle would be between them both with Jeffcoat in third. On the final lap, Holland put in a surge and made a gap to take the victory, while Taylor-Brown crossed the line comfortably in 2nd, while Gentle put in a solid run to take 3rd spot
Vicky Holland said after the race “On paper this was a World Cup race and not a World Series race but this race means a lot more than that because of the current climate and because we don’t know when the next race will go ahead. So today was really important because it might be my only race for quite a while. I haven’t really started my full run training yet and I am probably about 60-70 percent on volume so I am over the moon with that result. I didn’t think I would run that well but I got the bit between the teeth and I thought I would have a dig and I came out on top.”
Men’s Race
In the mens race it would be an incredible sprint finish between kiwi’s Ryan Sissions and Hayden Wilde as they both clocked 51:50 across the line but Sissions had the slight lead as they crossed over the line to tape the tape.
It was in no doubt who the strongest swimmer in the field was and of course it was Richard Varga who set the pace in the swim. However, there would only be 30 seconds that would separate all athletes in the water.
All four British athletes Ben Dijskta, Alex Yee, Tom Bishop and Sam Dickinson where in the large front group that formed on the bike section. A mechanical near the end of the bike would put the renowned fast runner Yee out of contention for the overall win.
Straight off the bike out of T2 and it was Sissons began the run in a lead pack with a 6 seconds margin over Wilde, who had to work hard to catch back up to the leaders. A group formed that also included Luke Willian of Australia and Dikstra. Towards the end they fell back and in was a dramatic sprint finish between Wilde and Sissons. It was Sissions who held on for the win with a 15:05 run split.
Sissions said after the race “I did everything I needed to do and I put myself in the best position on the swim, right in contact, on the bike I was at the front the whole time and I went off on the run as hard as I could and let everyone else chase and it paid off. The last two years have been pretty average, I have had some good races and I have had some absolutely terrible ones. The last two races of last year I didn’t even finish. I came here determined to win this race.”
ACCESS FULL RACE RESULTS HERE HERE
