Triathlon: Docherty paces himself for chance at world title

Bevan Docherty. Photo / Janna Dixon

A revitalised Bevan Docherty is among the New Zealanders competing in the fourth round of the triathlon world championships series in Kitzbuehel, Austria, this weekend.

Docherty has tumbled down the championship rankings to 17th place, after being forced to withdraw from United States races in Washington and Des Moines as he battled flu symptoms in the past few weeks.

However, with the best four of the seven events to count, Docherty said he hoped good performances in two more events would set him up for a chance at the overall title.

"My race expectations for Kitzbuehel have changed after finally managing to shake the flu that has plagued me over the last few races," he said.

"I plan to just build a bit of strength and form over the next few races, and should be in great form by Yokohama and Gold Coast."

Palmerston North's Kris Gemmell heads into the race in 12th place, but, like Docherty, has just the one result counting towards his points, a fourth place in Korea.

"The points...are a bit of a mathematical nightmare with athletes counting their best four races at the end of the series and not everyone having raced the same number of events," he said.

"We'll get a better idea after Hamburg in a couple of weeks, but this weekend is a great chance for us to make up some of that ground."

Gemmell said he was looking forward to the chance to race in the Austrian ski town again, having competed there before the Olympics last year.

"While the course is tough for us, it is not as tough as they could make it with the surrounding mountains," he said.

"It is challenging, though, and with the quality of the field again, this could well come down to yet another sprint finish. The quality of performance is so high that you back off a little and you can end up in sixth place but within touching distance of first."

The men's field in the Kitzbuehel round has been tipped as possibly the best in the series so far.

Among the international competitors are Spanish world champion Javier Gomez and Britain's Alistair Brownlee, who has two championship wins on the board from Madrid and Washington.

Lining up for his first series race, Havelock North's Callum Millward said he expected the race to be a rather steep learning curve.

"This is my first crack at a world champ series race, so I'm taking the attitude of having nothing to lose and hope to learn from the experience," he said.

"Sometimes it's overwhelming lining up alongside Olympic and world champions, but, at the end of the day, they're only human and did their apprenticeship just like we're doing now."

Other New Zealanders racing include New Plymouth's Clark Ellice, who finished 15th at Des Moines, Christchurch's Dylan McNeice, Wellingtonian Martin Van Barneveld and Hamilton's Graham O'Grady.

- NZPA