Richard Murray of South Africa surged past Javier Gomez of Spain with a kilometer to go to win his first ITU World Triathlon Series event in a sprint distance contest at Hamburg Saturday.
After breakaway-proof bike leg through the twisting streets of Hamburg left 40 men in the lead pack, Murray and Gomez quickly left the rest of the field behind on the first of two laps of the run. As both men think of themselves as lacking in the red-hot sprint department, Murray and Gomez surged throughout the final 1.25 kilometer lap until Murray found some speed with about 400 meters to go.
Murray sprinted as well as he could and closed with a formidable 14:05 5k run and a 51:48 overall time. Gomez was 5 seconds in arrears in the runner-up slot. Steffen Justus of Germany was third, 11 seconds back of Murray.
“I don’t think I sprint that well, but today my legs felt good,” said Murray, who expressed relief that his A game had returned after a dispiriting DNF at the Kitzbuhel WTS. “After Kitzbuhel, any podium would be icing on the cake. I think time off after that race was definitely to my benefit.”
Gomez did not take offense in losing a race to the wire to a man who claimed he did not have a sprint either. “I am still a bit tired and I need some taper before the games,” said Gomez. “I tried to change the pace in the last kilometer, he but he kept up with me. The fact is the sprint distance is a different game than the Olympics.”
Murray, the 2007 and 2008 junior men’s ITU Duathlon World Champion, has had a breakthrough year in 2012 with two previous podiums at hotly contested WTS events -- a 2nd place at Sydney and a 3rd at San Diego.
Brad Kahlefeldt of Australia had reason to celebrate his 6th place and return to form after a TB scare and lung lesions he incurred after the San Diego round of the WTS series in May. Defending Olympic champion Jan Frodeno also looked as strong as he has all season after his 10th place finish, 21 seconds back of the winner.
ITU World Triathlon Series Hamburg
Hamburg, Germany
July 21, 2012
S .75 K / B 20 K / R 5 K
Results
Men
1. Richard Murray (RSA) 51:48
2. Javier Gomez (ESP) 51:53
3. Steffen Justus (GER) 51:59
4. Sven Riederer (SUI) 52:04
5. Maik Petzold (GER) 52:05
6. Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) 52:05
7. Reinaldo Colucci (BRA) 52:05
8. Will Clarke (GBR) 52:07
9. Alexander Brukhankov (RUS) 52:09
10. Jan Frodeno (GER) 52:09
11. Bevan Docherty (NZL)
27. Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 52:44
30. Matt Chrabot (USA) 52:49
37. Kris Gemmell (NZL) 52:58
Current ITU World Triathlon Series men’s rankings
1. Alexander Brukhankov (RUS) 3128
2. Dimitry Polyansky (RUS) 2462
3. Sven Riederer (SUI) 2368
4. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) 2340
5. Richard Murray (RSA) 2225
6. Steffen Justus (GER) 2027
7. Ivan Vasiliev (RUS) 1734
8. Laurent Vidal (FRA) 1553
9. Tim Don (GBR) 1476
10. Maik Petzold (GER) 1463
20. Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 962
31. Matt Chrabot (USA) 730
37. Hunter Kemper (USA) 586
45. Manuel Huerta (USA) 429
