Mathew Sharp from Great Britain won gold at the ITU U23 World Championships In Beijing, China and fellow Brits David McNamee and Tom Bishop earned silver and bronze and it appears the British team is not missing last year's U23 Champion Jonathan Brownlee too much. American Greg Billington who had been hit by a car just a few months back and broken his wrists finished fourth.
67 young men were at the start at the Shisanling reservoir in Changping, Beijing and they represent the next generation of Pros to come. Seasoned Russian ITU Pros Igor Polyanskiy and Denis Vasilev though were first out of the water, followed by Pierre Le Corre from France, Tom Bishop and Russia's Andrey Bryukhankov. But Polyanskiy had to serve a 15 second penalty for a false start.
Early in the bike a break containing Kiwis Tom Davison and Michael Poole, plus Ireland's Benjamin Shaw got away and the three worked nicely together to gain time on the chasing bunch. A few attempts were made by individuals in the field to reel them in but it all was in vain. By the time the three leaders hit the bike-run transition their lead had grown to 70 seconds.
Shaw dropped his companions early in the run, but behind him a group of five was coming closer and closer. In that group were Sharp, McNamee, Bishop, Billington and LeCorre and by the second lap they were at the front of the race. LeCorre was first to fall off the pace and that meant 4 men hit the bell lap together. After some battles for position Sharp managed to pull away from the other three and took the 2011 U23 title.
"This is probably the best I've ever felt in my life. I felt good for every step of the run and I was just waiting for the time to pounce and I thought with half a kilometre to go, I just kicked as hard as I could and didn't look back," said Sharp.
McNamee and Bishop made the British sweep perfect when Billington no longer could stay with them.
ITU Triathlon World Championships U23 Men
Beijing, China / September 9, 2011
1.5k swim / 40k bike / 10k run
Top 10 men
1. Matthew Sharp (GBR) 1:52:12
2. David McNamee (GBR) 1:52:17
3. Thomas Bishop (GBR) 1:52:19
4. Gregory Billington (USA) 1:52:38
5. Franz Loeschke (GER) 1:53:01
6. Igor Polyanskiy (RUS) 1:53:05
7. Pierre Le Corre (FRA) 1:53:17
8. Ivan Ivanov (UKR) 1:53:26
9. Rodrigo Gonzalez (MEX) 1:53:28
10. Davide Uccellari (ITA) 1:53:53
