Brendan Sexton stitches up Top 20 finish in Cape Town

Triathlon Australia, April 27, 2015: London Olympian Brendan Sexton produced a courageous performance to secure a top 20 finish in the ITU World Triathlon Series event in Cape Town overnight.

The 29-year-old had six stitches inserted in a wound to his right index finger in a pre-race accident two days before the race but decided to take his place in the field.

After coming out well back in the field in the shortened 750m swim (due to the cold water conditions) Sexton set about working his way back into the race on the bike before storming past more than half the field on the run to finish 15^th in a race that saw Great Britain’s Olympic and Commonwealth Games champion Alistair Brownlee back to his blistering best.

Brownlee ran away from his contenders –including Spain’s four-time ITU World Champion and Olympic silver medallist Javier Gomez, Frenchman Vincent Luis and local South African hero Richard Murray in a spectacular 2015 debut by the Brit – that included a stumble early on in the run.

Australia’s Commonwealth Games representative Dan Wilson was among the early leaders, exiting the swim in 13^th place, ensuring he was able to position himself towards the front of the bike, where he stayed on and off throughout the technical 40km bike course.

Wilson went on to finish 22^nd while Cameron Good was 54^th.

Sexton’s final 10km run split of 31.38 saw him pick off many of is competitors in an encouraging fight back.

“The swim was really rough, I sort of really didn’t know where I was in the swim, coming back in with the sun in your eyes, it was really hard to pick a line, so I (ended up) a bit further back than I would have liked,” said Sexton, who exited the water in 47^th place.

“The group split up pretty quickly and we were in the last group (on the bike) but we worked pretty hard and worked all together to get back on.

“When it came to that run, it was on from the word go; it took me about three 3km to get going; I started to pick a few people off; I actually made up quite a bit of time in that second half.

“I’m pretty happy with (the result) considering I got stitches in my hand two days ago.”

Sexton will now by-pass the next round in Yokohama while Wilson and Good will be joined by Aaron Royle, Ryan Bailie, Jake Birtwhistle and Courtney Atkinson.

Not even the stumble could stop Brownlee’s return to the top of the WTS podium as the most successful athlete in series history, taking his total number of titles to 18.

While he tripped early on in the run, Brownlee made his way up to the lead group of Gomez, Murray and Luis before quickly blowing them away in the final 1500m.

In his first WTS race in 2015 after returning from injury, Brownlee said he wasn’t sure what to expect, but was obviously thrilled with the result.

With 3km to go, Luis fell off the front, which seemed to leave the fight for the podium to Gomez, Brownlee and Murray.

Up until the 8km mark it was hard to split that trio, but in the run home into the Stadium it was Brownlee who simply found another level.

In just 500metres, he had opened up a huge gap on Gomez and ran in to comfortably win in a time of 1 hour 39 minutes and 18 seconds.

Behind Brownlee, Gomez finished strongly to claim silver and take over the rankings lead.

While already a multiple World Triathlon Series medallist in sprint distance races, Vincent Luis was yet to take one in Olympic distance. That all changed in Cape Town when he staged a final lap comeback, overtaking Murray to capture bronze.

Sexton clocked 1:41.10; Wilson 1:41.32 and Good 1:48.10.

Elite Men

1.	Alistair Brownlee	GBR		01:39:19
2.	Javier Gomez Noya	ESP		01:39:24
3.	Vincent Luis	FRA		01:39:28
4.	Richard Murray	RSA		01:39:39
5.	Fernando Alarza	ESP		01:39:51
6.	Sven Riederer	SUI		01:40:00
7.	Pierre Le Corre	FRA		01:40:07
8.	Mario Mola	ESP		01:40:16
9.	Crisanto Grajales	MEX		01:40:30
10.	Joao Pereira	POR		01:40:32

 

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Rankings Men

 

1.	Javier Gomez Noya	ESP		2707
2.	Mario Mola	ESP		2273
3.	Fernando Alarza	ESP		2221
4.	Jonathan Brownlee	GBR		2186
5.	Richard Murray	RSA		1904
6.	Pierre Le Corre	FRA		1728
7.	Crisanto Grajales	MEX		1429
8.	Vincent Luis	FRA		1425
9.	Ryan Bailie	AUS		1305
10.	Joao Pereira	POR		1175

 

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Issued on behalf of Triathlon Australia by
Ian Hanson| Media Manager Triathlon Australia

Ian Hanson| Media Manager Triathlon Australia Managing Director
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