McShane and Birtwhistle maintain rankings rage in Stockholm

Triathlon Australia, 3 July 2016: Next generation triathletes Charlotte McShane and Jake Birtwhistle are sitting pretty on the WTS World Rankings after further encouraging performances in last night’s round in Stockholm.

The two Under 23 world champions, who narrowly missed selection on the Rio Olympic team, have continued their rankings rise after the sixth race of the nine-event WTS which culminates in the Grand Final in Cozumel in September.

McShane stormed home to finish seventh behind Bermuda’s breakaway bolter Flora Duffy and has jumped to eighth behind Duffy on the prestigious world rankings with Hamburg, Edmonton and Cozumel remaining.

She worked her way through the field in an event that saw Duffy run and ride away from everyone from the outset of the bike to lead all the way to notch her first ever WTS victory ahead of Andrea Hewitt (NZ) and Helen Jenkins (GBR).

But the seventh place finish is another major confidence booster for McShane who is having far and away the most consistent season of her career.

She set out to maintain her place in the Top Ten and that’s just what she did.

“I knew the course quite well and it is just good to be able to finish strongly on the run after working hard on the bike – I cant wait for Hamburg,” said McShane.

The other Australian girls were Natalie Van Coevorden (15th), Emma Jackson (18th) and Gillian Backhouse (29th).

Van Coevorden had a great race, pushing towards the leaders in the swim and in the chase groups on the bike for an encouraging top 20 finish.

Birtwhistle again had to work on his back-end strengths, working his way through the field to finish 17th, but it was good enough to see him jump two spots into 12th place, three behind Australia’s leading male, fellow Wollongong Wizard, Olympian Ryan Bailie.

But it was Commonwealth Games comeback boy Dan Wilson who gave a good sight out of the water and onto the bike before his lack of running fitness took it’s toll on the 10km run to finish 32nd.

Wilson, who swims under prolific Olympic swim coach Michael Bohl and alongside the likes of Mitch Larkin and Bronte Barratt, knew he would be pushing towards the lead on the swim despite spending 12 months on the sidelines.

The recently turned 31-year-old has comeback strongly from Achilles surgery, a broken arm and a stress fracture.

He will be better for the run as he prepares to join Olympians Bailie, Aaron Royle and Ryan Fisher in the next round in Hamburg.

It was a race that again saw defending Olympic champion Alistair Brownlee take out his second successive race after winning in Leeds, and again from London Olympic bronze medal winning brother Jonathan, with Frenchman Pierre Le Corre third.

2016 Vattenfall World Triathlon Stockholm
1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run

WOMEN

1.	Flora Duffy	BER		02:03:38
2.	Andrea Hewitt	NZL		02:03:58
3.	Helen Jenkins	GBR		02:04:06
4.	Vicky Holland	GBR		02:04:43
5.	Ai Ueda	JPN		02:04:56
6.	Sarah True	USA		02:05:06
7.	Charlotte McShane	AUS		02:05:17
8.	Nicky Samuels	NZL		02:05:18
9.	Vendula Frintova	CZE		02:05:26
10.	Katie Zaferes	USA		02:05:34

Full Results 

MEN

1.	Alistair Brownlee	GBR		01:50:33
2.	Jonathan Brownlee	GBR		01:50:43
3.	Pierre Le Corre	FRA		01:51:30
4.	Andreas Schilling	DEN		01:51:47
5.	Fernando Alarza	ESP		01:51:48
6.	Kristian Blummenfelt	NOR		01:52:05
7.	Jonas Schomburg	TUR		01:52:18
8.	Henri Schoeman	RSA		01:52:22
9.	Aurelien Raphael	FRA		01:52:59
10.	Adam Bowden	GBR		01:53:0

Full Results