Food poisoning derails Gemmell in Madrid

In a complete role reversal from the opening Dextro Energy ITU World Champs Series race in Korea, the New Zealand men failed to fire in race two in Madrid this morning New Zealand time, unable to back up the stunning win from Christchurch’s Andrea Hewitt.

Neither Kris Gemmell (Palmerston North) nor Tony Dodds (Wanaka) was able to finish the race with Gemmell dropping off the lead group early in the bike before withdrawing after 3 of the 8 laps.

It was yet another piece of bad luck for the Palmerston North Triathlete as a serious bout of food poisoning had derailed him on the eve of the race.

“This seems to be my luck lately”, said a dejected Gemmell. “I began suffering the effects of food poisoning on Friday night and spent all night and most of Saturday spewing – sorry there is just no other way to describe it.

“I made the front group on the bike but very quickly knew there was nothing in the tank so I’m gutted. I hate pulling out of any race especially when I know my form is so good, I felt like there was a podium finish in me this weekend for sure.”

Dodds struggled to stay with the pace in his first World Champs Series start, eventually withdrawing on the 7th of the 8 laps of the bike while in 37th place. The 21 year old is not getting too down about the race though, putting it down to valuable experience at the top level.

“I felt good beforehand, quite relaxed in fact. The only problem I had before the race was that I did not have the usual ‘pre-race food’, I couldn’t find any porridge or creamed rice to have before the race so had to settle for a sandwich.

“The first 200m in the swim was fine, I was sitting behind the leader until the others came up beside me, pulling me, pushing me and put myself out of rhythm. I thought I was fine but I just couldn’t regain my rhythm. I came out in the 3rd pack 1 minute down then had to work so hard on the bike. There was a big hill and it was hot, there was no letting up, this was a true swim-bike-run course.

“After the 4th lap we caught the 2nd group but by then I was spent, I started closing my eyes I was in so much pain, finally ‘popping’ on the 2nd last lap up the hill....’no more’ I said. And that was it.

“The positives that came out of this were different though from other big races, I felt like I needed to be more aggressive in the water; I have to deal with that. I can keep up with any of them but as soon as someone touches me I lose rhythm.

“So I’m not too down, because I now know what I have to do and feel more experienced from this race as there were all the best from around the world.”

The race was won with spectacular ease by Alistair Brownlee (GBR) with the youngster running away from Courtney Atkinson (AUS) and local favourite Javier Gomez (SPN).

As was the case with the women earlier, conditions in Madrid were difficult for racing with temperatures into the 30’s.

Earlier in the day the New Zealand women rebounded from their disappointment in Korea with Andrea Hewitt winning from Lisa Norden (SWE) in a sprint finish that required a 5 minute study of the photo finish.

Sam Warriner cut out the quickest run split of the day to finish in 7th while Nicky Samuels was 14th.

Dextro Energy ITU World Champs Series

Madrid, Spain

Elite Men

1 Alistair Brownlee GBR 1:51:27

2 Courtney Atkinson AUS 1:52:14

3 Javier Gomez ESP 1:52:19

4 Maik Petzold GER 1:52:32

5 Ivan Vasiliev RUS 1:52:39

DNF Kris Gemmell NZL

DNF Tony Dodds NZL