World Triathlon

Russia’s Dmitry Polyansky blasted away on the run to secure his first victory of the season at the 2011 Tongyeong ITU Triathlon World Cup on Saturday. Spain’s Jose Miguel Perez and Belgium’s Simon De Cuyper both broke through for the first World Cup podiums of their respective careers.

It was the elder of the Russian Vasiliev brothers, Ivan who led the swim among the 50 athletes that began the race under clement skies for a non-wetsuit swim in Tongyeong. Ivan Vasiliev and Richard Varga (SVK) led a pack of 26 out onto the bike course with Russian teammates Igor Polyanskiy, Dmitry Polyansky and Denis Vasiliev just metres behind.

The riders, led by Namibia’s Abrahm Louw, attacked the two sizable hills on the bike course with a pack of 15 athletes less than 30 seconds away on the chase, including Belgium’s De Cuyper. From the second lap, the ride had turned into a game of cat and mouse. Firstly the front group dropped five athletes into the chase with a lead of 45 seconds, and ended with the chase catching up to form a huge 35 strong group by the bell lap.

Out of T2 Dmitry Polyansky wasted no time in pulling away and laid down his lead on the run. A syndicate of eight athletes were scheming behind him that included local favourite Min Ho Heo, Aurelien Raphael (FRA) and Perez, but Polyansky’s lead only widened as the laps concluded. A fight for silver and bronze then ensued in a pack of seven athletes who refused to back down.
   
With such a domineering lead, Dmitry Polyansky could not be challenged and crossed the line for gold in a time of 01:49:33.

“My late season has been very good for me and I really love Asia because of the beautiful people and great organisation of races and I always try my best here,” said Polyansky. “When I began the run, it was really hard for me because it was a very hard season but I tried my best.”

Over ten seconds behind Polyansky on the last lap, Perez and De Cuyper made a final push to overtake Raphael with the chance of a medal tantalisingly close. The pair reached their goal as Perez managed to hold off De Cuyper for silver and the Belgian took bronze, both realising their first ever place on a World Cup podium.

“It was a very hard race, last week I raced in Huatulco in very hard conditions, with the travel it was so hard for me to race,” said Perez.

“It’s really unbelievable because I came here with a goal of top 20 and that would be my best World Cup ever,” said an elated De Cuyper. “I knew in the first group, everything is possible now, it’s all in and I have to give everything I have.  Maybe I started a little bit too fast in the first five kilometres but in the end I could come back and I could finish with a good sprint to out-sprint (Aurelien) Raphael to get third, it’s unbelievable, I’m very happy.”

Heo pulled out another career first as the 21-year-old finished in fifth, breaking his own record made at the 2010 Tongyeong ITU Triathlon World Cup, as the highest finishing Korean at a world cup event.