Mixed results for Triathletes

Photo courtesy of ITU Triathlon Official

For NZ Triathlon, 2014 will go down as a year with limited highs and a larger number of lows.

The sport of Triathlon already has a rich history amongst some of our best sporting moments.

Hamish Carter and Bevan Docherty going gold and silver in the 2004 Athens Olympics, Kris Gemmell a number of ITU podium's and of course newly inducted ITU Triathlon Hall of Famer Erin Baker.

In a Commonwealth Games year, it was always high on the priority list of leaving Glasgow with a couple of medals, both in the individual races and the team event which was in its first showing at a major event, a preview to being included at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

However it was not to be.

The best of the Kiwi athletes was pocket rocket Andrea Hewitt narrowly missing out on a medal finishing 4th, while Ryan Sissions and Tony Dodds finished 13th and 10th between them.

However with the final round of the ITU World Championship held over the weekend in Edmonton, Canada, the elites were hoping to finish off 2014 on a positive note.

Andrea and Nicky Samuels both continued their late season form, again finishing 2nd and 3rd respectively, following on from the event in Stockholm.

Although they both came off the bike with a 1.30 second lead over series leader Gwen Jorgensen, it wasn't enough to hold onto top spot but both ladies should be happy with their efforts, considering Gwen is the top women's triathlete on the planet and her run splits this season have been nothing short of insane.

As a result it saw Andrea finish the series overall in 3rd place, while Nicky moved up to 5th place.

A fantastic result for Andrea and Nicky who both have had to overcome a couple of hurdles this year.

The men's race was held the following day with Tony Dodds and Ryan Sissons carrying the Kiwi flag once again.

However it appeared to be a similar result as many of the ITU races this year.

Tony was well placed after the swim with the lead cycle pack but appeared to loose his running legs as he hit the final discipline.

Ryan was well back on the swim, just over a minute off the lead pack and with it, his race hopes were gone instantly. While he continued on the bike he pulled out before the run and finished with a DNF.

A disappointment for both guys as it appears the distance between our Kiwi men and the Brownlee brothers as well as Javier Gomez and Mario Mola continues to grow, perhaps the size of the Tasman Sea.

Failing to bring home any medals from the Commonwealth Games could well have an impact on Triathlon NZ's allocation of funding going forward and it appears as though plenty of soul searching and back to the drawing board during the brief off season before the Kiwi summer kicks off.