Javier Gomez of Spain ran away from the field with a sizzling, race-best 30:20 run to take the victory at the ETU European Championship in Eilat, Israel.

Gomez finished in 1:55:48 with a 20-seconds margin of victory over runner-up Alexander Brukhankov of Russia and 54 seconds over 3rd place finisher Ivan Vasiliev of Russia, who ran the next-best 10k split of 31:02.

Gomez played his cards coolly through the swim and bike, allowing Tony Moulai of France and Andreas Schilling of Denmark to make a break that earned them a 40-seconds margin at T2.

Gomez made up the deficit and had a 10-seconds lead by the end of the first lap. The Spaniard had exploded into the lead and there was no need to look back.

With two laps to go, Brukhankov passed Moulai for second place. Moulai, who had to serve a penalty for throwing his swim cap on the ground, hung on for the podium as long as he could, but in the end Vasiliev passed the exhausted Frenchman, who fell just four seconds short of the podium in 4th.

Gomez’s win gives him a measure of satisfaction after being knocked out of contention by rough blocking tactics employed by Great Britain’s Harry Wiltshire at the European Championship last year in Pontevedra, Spain. Wiltshire was banned from the ITU for six months for unsportsmanlike conduct during the incident.

Gomez told ETU media: "It was a tough race with conditions in the heat and the wind. The course was tough too, it was a very complicated, but I felt good the whole time and I kept pretty solid on the bike. I knew I had energy for the run and although it wasn’t a very fast run, it was the same conditions for everyone, but I managed to push hard on the first lap and make a pretty good gap and then I just kept it. I felt tired but pretty happy."

With regard to the points chase to be one of eight nations with three Olympic men’s start slots, Vasiliev’s 3rd-place finish thus increased Russia’s 5th place national points standing. Joao Pereira of Brazil finished 11th and thus put a little more ground between Brazil’s 9th place Olympic qualifying standing and the United States men, who now stand 10th – two places away from qualifying three men for the 2012 Olympics.


ETU Triathlon European Championship
Eilat, Israel
April 21, 012
S 1.5 k / B 40 k / R 10k

Results

Elite Men

1. Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:55:48
2. Alexander Brukhankov (RUS) 1:56:08
3. Ivan Vasiliev (RUS) 1:56:42
4. Tony Moulai (FRA) 1:56:47
5. Alessandro Fabian (ITA) 1:56:48
6. Mario Mola (ESO) 1:56:52
7. Franz Loeschke (GER) 1:56:57
8. Dimitry Polyansky (RUS) 1:57:06
9. Aaron Harris (GBR) 1:57:09
10. Aurélien Raphael (FRA) 1:57:13
11. Joao Pereira (BRA) 1:57:21
16. Ivan Rana (ESP) 1:58:15
17. Sven Riederer (SUI) 1:58:29
19. Filip Ospaly (CZE) 1:58:42
20. Frederic Belaubre (FRA) 1:58:49