KEY POINTS:
A strong performance in the swim and cycling legs set New Zealand's Samantha Warriner up to claim her sixth world cup title at the Tongyeong round of the Triathlon World Cup yesterday.
Warriner cruised to gold in a time of one hour, 49 minutes, 49 seconds. Second was Hollie Avil of Britain, nine seconds back with Vendula Frintova of the Czech Republic, a further 22 seconds down.
Bevan Docherty ensured it was a good day for the Kiwis by finishing second, six seconds behind behind Britain's Tim Don in the men's race.
"I'm pretty stoked," Warriner, 36, said. "I was feeling good. In the New Plymouth round, I made lots of mistakes. I made sure not to make the same mistakes here and it worked."
Very windy conditions greeted the women's field of only 32 athletes for the start of the 1500m swim. Local Yun-Jung Jang from South Korea held the lead for the entire swim leg, but a large group containing all of the top names was close behind and quickly made up this gap early in the bike leg.
Because of the windy conditions and two gruelling hills on the bike course, the lead group stayed together and entered the second transition as one.
Within 50 metres of exiting transition, Warriner pushed the pace on the run, pulling away with only Avil and Frintova able to match her.
The three worked together to put time between them and the rest of the field until the halfway point where Warriner put on a burst of speed to drop Frintova.
"I was pushed all the way by those two and that was really good practice because you need to be able to control yourself in that sort of state," Warriner said. "I decided to go for it around that last corner and got it and I'm really pleased."
Docherty bounced back from the disappointment of withdrawing from the New Plymouth Word Cup triathlon race with a second in the men's race. Don won the men's event in one hour, 38 minutes, 14 seconds with Docherty, six seconds back, needing a video review to separate him from Germany's Jan Frodeno for second.
"I felt pretty good but never felt 100 percent at any stage all day.
"But I was strong enough to hang on in a tight sprint finish. I have good confidence in my sprinting these days so was comfortable leaving it until the finish."
Docherty considered going with Don but admitted he was too good yesterday.
- NZPA
