Mario Mola of Spain surged to the win with a race-best 14:17 5k run split that brought him to the finish in 52:19 with a 17 seconds margin of victory over Jacob Birtwhistle of Australia, who nipped 3rd-place Fernando Alarza of Spain in a photo finish at WTS Hamburg.

The race for the win appeared to come down to a fierce run duel between Mola and Richard Murray of South Africa. However, Murray, in his first race back to the WTS circuit after suffering a broken collarbone, incurred a 10-second penalty for leaving his wetsuit in the wrong box at T1. Murray served the time right before the finish line, allowing Mola to cross the line roughly 12 seconds ahead of the South African. After leaving the penalty box, Murray made an insulting gesture to the Technical Officials which was ruled to be unsportsmanlike and led to his disqualification.

Mola said of his victory, “I am very happy with the race. I have had the inconsistencies through the three sports that I have been working on. Sometimes you get the result that you have been aiming for and sometimes you don’t. But today it went very good.”

Birtwhistle won a thrilling duel for the silver with Alarza. Birtwhistle let up slightly in his two final steps when Alarza came flying up on his left side. Technical Officials reviewed a finish line photo to determine that the Australian won the silver. Birtwhistle ran 14:32 while Alarza almost came from behind for the silver with a 14:24 5k split.

Commenting on the close finish that brought him his first WTS podium, Birtwhistle said, “I thought I did (cross over before Alarza), that is why I did a bit of a first bump at the finish line, but it didn’t take long for me to start second guessing myself. I guess I was just at the line beforehand.”

Joao Pereira of Portugal took 4th in 52:42 and Ryan Bailie of Australia took 5th in 52:45.

With the victory, Mola jumped to the front of the Columbia Threadneedle 2016 World Triathlon Series season point standings with 3,833 points, 390 ahead of Alarza, 828 ahead of Jonathan Brownlee of Great Britain, 1,479 ahead of Pierre Le Corre of France, and 1,698 ahead of Birtwhistle.

WTS Hamburg
Hamburg, Germany
July 16, 2017
S 750m / B 20k / R 5k

Results

Elite Men

1. Mario Mola (ESP) 52:19
2. Fernando Alarza (ESP) 52:36
3. Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS) 52:36
4. Joao Pereira (POR) 52:42
5. Ryan Bailie (AUS) 52:45
6. Marten Van Riel (BEL) 52:48
7. Tyler Mislawchuk (CAN) 52:51
8. Andreas Schilling (DEN) 52:57
9. Rostislav Pevtsov (AZE) 52:58
10. Jonathan Zipf (GER) 52:59
24. Eric Lagerstrom (USA) 53:31
28. Joe Maloy (USA) 53:37
32. Ben Kanute (USA) 53:47
35. Kevin McDowell (USA) 53:58
50. Tommy Zaferes (USA) 55:01
DQ Richard Murray (RSA)