Triathlon: Elvery bounces back from broken bone

James Elvery. Photo / Daily Post

New Zealand triathlete James Elvery finished second at the Geneva ITU European Cup today despite breaking his hand just over two weeks ago.

He was initially given a 4-6 week window of healing time after he slipped during a training run and snapped an outer bone in his right hand clean through.

At the time of the injury Elvery knew he would be hard pressed to be in top shape for the first New Zealand Olympic selection race in London on August 7th.

Forced to withdraw from last week's Hamburg world championship series race, which was meant to be his final hit-out before London, Elvery switched his race schedule with Geneva the best last-minute alternative.

"I was really gutted when I fell and broke my hand training a couple of weeks ago, as I was in fantastic shape with everything going perfectly," Elvery said.

"The bone has been healing well but I was definitely being careful out there, particularly in the water, as opening it up again with two weeks to London would be bad news."

With disrupted swimming and cycling training over the past two weeks, Elvery impressed out of the water, making an elite breakaway group of seven which rode to a minute and a half lead by the end of the tough bike course.

"I worked hard in the swim to stay in touch but I did struggle on the bike. The hill here is one of the toughest on the ITU circuit and I haven't been able to ride out of the saddle properly since my injury. I think this took a lot out of me for later in the race."

"Last year I was sick and suffered a DNF here, then was mugged after the race so it was good to come back and have a better experience in Geneva."

This year's race was won by Matthew Sharp (Britain) in a time of 1hr 58min 24sec, with Elvery 20 seconds behind him and Alberto Casadei (ITA) third.

Wellington's Martin van Barneveld had one of the fastest runs of the day to push up from the chase pack and finish sixth, while Christchurch's Tom Davison suffered a puncture early in the bike and pulled out.

In the women's field, withRebecca Kingsford claimed her first elite podium in third place, following on from a strong sixth in San Francisco two weeks ago. Kingsford finished behind Australia's Felicty Sheedy-Ryan and Radka Vodickova of the Czech Republic.

Tanya Dromgool also cracked the top 10 in eighth place while Penny Hayes did not finish the race.

- NZPA