Mens winner Wian Sullwald (RSA) broke through for his first ever ITU World Cup win with victory at Chengdu in China today, defeating Kevin McDowell (USA) and Aurelien Lebrun (FRA), with all three posting career-best performances.
20 year old Sullwald follows in the footsteps of Richard Murray and Hendrik De Villiers as the only South Africans to stand atop an ITU World Cup podium, following on from his 15th place finish at the Capetown ITU WTS event a week ago.
The young South African was patient in the swim before sitting in a large group that rode well within themselves on the bike, before establishing himself at the front of the run and sprinting clear of McDowell and Lebrun with Tony Dodds (NZL) finishing fourth on his return from injury.
“I am happy to take the win, like I said in the press conference I wanted to be on the podium today and I made it, I am over the moon, “ said Sullwald. “I remained calm throughout the whole race, the swim was decent and the bike was quite easy, all the packs got together and were just riding along, I stuck to the back and on the last two laps I worked my way to the front and hit it hard on to the run and just kept my pace.
“Today the sun is out and it is really quite warm but coming from South African I am used to the heat and for me it was perfect racing conditions. From Capetown to Chengdu it is all going great and hopefully now I can back this up with another good performance in Yokohama.”
In the women’s race it was an Aussie win at the Chengdu ITU World Cup in China today, with Gillian Backhouse (AUS) proving too strong on the run to clear out in warm and muggy conditions to win by 29 seconds from Jessica Broderick (USA) with Claire Michel (BEL) in third place.
Unlike the men’s race, a smaller group of 15 riders established themselves out of the swim and gradually broke clear of the bulk of the field, leading by almost 2 minutes into T2. That group quickly broke up on the run though, with Backhouse quick to hit the lead and scatter the chasers.
It was a first win for Backhouse and one that she was delighted with.
“In terms of career performances this is the absolute best for me by a mile. My previous best at an ITU World Cup was 15th. It is not a complete surprise though, training has been going really well over the past month, my coach and I were hoping for a top five but to win is just absolutely amazing.
“The conditions were pretty much perfect for us today. The smog has cleared up a bit today, when we first got here I was a bit worried but it is much much clearer today and great for competing.”
Elite Women
1. Gillian Backhouse AUS
2. Jessica Broderick USA
3. Claire Michel BEL
4. Lisa Perterer AUT
5. Tamsyn Moana-Veale AUS
6. Lianyuan Wang CHN
7. Margit Vanek HUN
8. Simone Ackermann NZL
9. Yuting Huang CHN
10. Liubov Polyanskaya RUS
Elite Men
1. Wian Sullwald RSA
2. Kevin Mcdowell USA
3. Aurélien Lebrun FRA
4. Tony Dodds NZL
5. Jarrod Shoemaker USA
6. Peter Kerr AUS
7. Aurélien Lescure FRA
8. Lukas Hollaus AUT
9. Yuichi Hosoda JPN
10. Ivan Tutukin RUS