'London Calling' for emerging NZ Triathletes | infonews.co.nz New Zealand News

A number of New Zealand’s emerging elite triathletes raced in London over the weekend in the London Triathlon, one of the biggest triathlons in the world with close to 12,000 competitors across all levels.

While not on the ITU circuit, it is fast becoming one of the more popular races for the elites, with good organization and prize money.

Many of the Kiwis racing made the trip across to London from the Tri NZ High Performance Base in France. Martin van Barneveld, Tony Dodds, Ben Visser, Lee Greer and Graham O’Grady made the trip and enjoyed mixed results.

Van Barneveld finished best of the Kiwis in 9th place for a paycheck to cover his expenses and pay for a visit to the London Eye and a tour of Big Ben. Tony Dodds was next best in 13th, Ben Visser 27th and Lee Greer 35th. Graham O’Grady had the misfortune to puncture on the bike leg and withdrew from the race.

While playing tourist was on the mind of Van Barneveld and the other Kiwis post race, they effectively enjoyed a tour of London’s hot spots as the race weaved its way through the central city.

Van Barneveld was pleased with his efforts.

“Even with the Olympics on quite a few good athletes showed up, and some exceptional swimmers so the swim was going to be hard and fast. After a false start the race got under way. A combination of fear and knowing I had to give it everything at the start to stay with the front bunch meant I had an awesome swim which is always pleasing to me as I can sometimes miss the bunch.

“So out of transition I was about 4th or 5th. The bike was slow though, allowing the second bunch to catch up. There were some little attempts at break-aways but at the end a group of four managed to sneak away with a little 20sec lead into T2. I felt pretty good considering this is my 5th race in a row. I ran well to get 9th overall and some money, albeit not as much as first place but still very nice to have!

“Now it is off to play tourist for a few days before training beckons again!”

London Triathlon Standard Distance

Elite Men

Maik Petzold