Renee Tomlin of the U.S. and Dmitry Polyanskiy of Russia won the gold medals in the ITU Tiszaujvaros World Cup sprint final.
Tomlin led silver medalist Yulia Yelistratova of Ukraine and bronze medalist Elena Danilova of Russia on the women’s podium while Polyanskiy led his silver medalist brother Igor and bronze medalist Támas Tóth of Hungary on the men’s podium.
Women
“It was a great race,” Tomlin told ITU media. “The atmosphere was amazing, and I felt really good since the beginning.”
The win adds to Tomlin’s growing résumé that includes a win at the 2015 Chengdu World Cup, 2nd at the 2025 New Plymouth World Cup, a 4tat 2015 WTS Yokohama and 5th at 2015 WTS Abu Dhabi.
Tomlin was 5th out of the water with a 9:47 split that left her 7 seconds behind swim leader Anna Godoy of Spain and a few seconds back of Emma Jeffcoat of Australia, Erin Dolan of the U.S., and Paula Findlay of Canada. Seventeen seconds behind Tomlin was a dangerous fast-running duo of Yelistratova and Danilova.
Tomlin then led a small breakaway pack that included U.S. teammates Dolan, Lindsey Jerdonek, Jeffcoat and Godoy that led the field into T2 with a 15 seconds margin on Yelistratova and Danilova.
Tomlin, a strong NCAA middle distance runner, answered all doubts with a race-best 17:16 5k run that brought her to the finish in 1:00:02 with am 18 seconds margin of victory over Yelistratova (17:19 run) and 23 seconds ahead of 3rd-place Danilova (17:23 run). Dolan ran 17:46 to take 4th, 7 seconds behind Danilova and 4 seconds ahead of 5th place Jeffcoat.
Danilova and Yelistratova led the chase group that held the breakaway to a catchable gap. “I really have to thank the ones who worked hard with us on the bike,” said Yelistratova. “We all worked very hard so the distance between the leaders and us was minimum,” said Danilova, who reveled in her first World Cup podium.
Men
The win was Dmitry’s second at Tiszaujvaros, seven years after his 2009 victory. His younger brother Igor Polyanskiy followed his 2015 gold medal with a 2016 silver.
“It is great to have such a performance just before WTS Hamburg next week and the Olympics in Rio,” said 2016 Olympian Dmitry. “I worked very hard because I knew my brother was just behind. We worked together in the swim and the bike, but then in the run it was up to each one of us.”
Dmitry was second out of the swim in 8:45:00, followed by his brother and a pack of 7 men who made a small break and led into T2. Dmitry distanced themselves from the pack with race-best 15:13 and 15:17 runs which brought the brothers to the finish in 54:00 and 54:06, 6 and 11 seconds ahead of home country favorite Tómas Tóth.
ITU Tiszaujvaros World Cup
Tiszaujvaros, Hungary
July 10, 2016
S 750m / B 20k / R 5k
Men
1. Dmitry Polyanskiy (RUS) 54:00
2. Igor Polyanskiy (RUS) 54:06
3. Tamás Tóth (HUN) 54:11
4. Francesc Godoy (ESP) 54:21
5. Matthew Roberts (AUS) 54:32
9. William Huffman (USA) 54:48
21. Kevin McDowell (USA) 56:31
Women
1. Renee Tomlin (USA) 1:00:02
2. Yuliya Yelistratova (UKR) 1:00:20
3. Elena Danilova (RUS) 1:00:25
4. Erin Dolan (USA) 1:00:32
6. Emma Jeffcoat (AUS) 1:00:36
14. Lindsey Jerdonek (USA) 1:00:59
15. Taylor Spivey (USA) 1:01:02
