Kiwi triathlete Andrea Hewitt backed up superbly in her second Dextro Energy ITU Triathlon World Championship race in six days with a fourth place finish in London today to move to second in the overall World Championship race, while the first three Kiwis came home inside the top 18 in a top notch field.

 

Hewitt swam superbly, exiting the water in third place and right in contact with Americans Laura Bennett and Sarah Haskins. Tanner was next of the Kiwis in 24^th, 24 seconds down on the leaders but along with fellow Kiwi Kate McIlroy (28^th out of the water) caught the lead group just one lap into the eight lap bike course. Wanaka’s Nicky Samuels was 34^th out of the water and settled into the first chase group on the bike.

 

The Kiwis were prominent in the lead group though as they slowly but surely put some time on those behind as the bike leg wound its way in and around Hyde Park, with McIlroy in particular keeping the pace high in the opening laps, knowing that the second chase pack a minute behind included two of the big names in Lisa Norden (SWE) and Barbara Riveros Diaz (CHI). What was initially a lead of just 30 seconds gradually increased as the 24 strong lead group worked effectively together to eventually lead the one chase group by 1:52 going into the run.

 

24 quickly became 9 and then 7 on the run, with Hewitt the only Kiwi to stay with the early pace, a pace that was sufficiently quick to drop series leader Emma Moffatt (AUS) after the first of three laps. McIlroy and Tanner continued to run in the top 15 but were gradually falling off the pace.

 

Soon just 4 were in the mix, with Hewitt battling with Helen Jenkins (GBR), Paula Findlay (CAN) and Nicola Spirig (SUI), interestingly Hewitt was the only one of the four to be backing up from Hamburg a week ago when she finished in 6^th place.

 

That effort told in the closing stages though as Hewitt faded to fourth – albeit just 7 seconds off the victory, with 21 year old Findlay winning her first World Champs Series event on debut, adding yet another name to the growing list of winners on the World Championship Series, with each of the five events so far in 2010 having a different winner.

 

Hewitt though has set up a wonderful chance to back up on last year’s third place in the Series with just Kitzbuhel and the double points season ending Budapest races to come. The Christchurch triathlete trails Moffatt by just a handful of points in the overall series and with her great consistency is well positioned to pick up back to back World Championship Series medals.

 

McIlroy held her form superbly to finish in 15^th place with Tanner 18^th and Samuels 39^th. For McIlroy the result is further confirmation of her growing reputation in the sport in just her second season of triathlon.

 

1 Paula Findlay                    CAN   1:51:48
2 Nicola Spirig                      SUI     1:51:51
3 Helen Jenkins                   GBR   1:51:53
4 Andrea Hewitt                   NZL    1:51:55
5 Laura Bennett                   USA    1:52:34
Plus NZers
15 Kate McIlroy                     NZL    1:53:48
18 Debbie Tanner                NZL    1:54:08
39 Nicky Samuels                NZL    1:56:58

 

For overall World Champs Series points, visit www.triathlon.org

The men's race is set to go at 3am Monday morning NZT with Bevan Docherty, Kris Gemmell, Clark Ellice, Martin van Barneveld and Ryan Sissons on the start line.