from Triathlon.org…
It’s not often an athlete wins a world championship before a world cup but that’s exactly what German Daniel Unger has done. After a stunning performance in Hamburg last year to be crowned world champion, Unger won his first world cup today in another thrilling finish in Richards Bay. He becomes just the third German man to win a world cup and the first since Maik Petzold won in Salford in 2004, out-sprinting American Matt Reed and South African Hendrik DeVilliers down the final stretch.
Powerful swimmer Marko Albert of Estonia led the men out of the water and into T1. Just behind him were Swiss Sebastien Gacond and Volodymyr Polikarpenko of the Ukraine, last year’s silver medalist. Other notables were Matt Reed of the U.S. who was 12 seconds back of Albert and defending champion Hendrik DeVilliers of South Africa who was a further four seconds behind Reed.
Quickly on the 40-kilometer bike course the men came together to form a large lead group of 37 riders. Just past the midway mark of the bike, American Brian Fleischmann pulled away on a solo break and held a 24-second lead after the fifth of eight laps. In the late stages of the bike, Fleischmann was joined by Reed and the two Americans rode into T2 together and headed out on the 10-kilometer run course together.
Just after the first lap of the run, Reed started to pull away from Fleischmann but a group of seven men kept within striking distance. His pursuers included 2007 world champion Daniel Unger, Brazilian Reinaldo Colucci and DeVilliers, who was looking to duplicate last year’s breakthrough win. Halfway through the run Reed continued to lead but the chase pack shaved six seconds off the lead.
Reed took the bell lap with an 8-second lead but at the far turnaround he was caught by DeVilliers and Unger. In the final kilometer the South African took the lead but Unger and Reed stayed close. Up the final hill Unger pushed the pace and made a mad dash for the finish line to claim his first world cup title. Reed holds on for silver, just ahead of DeVilliers in an exciting finish. Canadian Kyle Jones finished in fourth place and Laurent Vidal of France in fifth, career bests for both.
2008 Richards Bay BG Triathlon World Cup
1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run
Elite Men – Official Results
Gold – Unger, Daniel (GER) 1:52:49
Silver – Reed, Matt (USA) 1:52:50
Bronze – DeVilliers, Hendrik (RSA) 1:52:50
4th – Jones, Kyle (CAN) 1:53:00
5th – Vidal, Laurent (FRA) 1:53:05
6th - Colucci, Reinaldo (BRA) 01:53:17
7th - Polyansky, Dmitry (RUS) 01:53:30
8th - Berk, Sander (NED) 01:53:31
9th - Agoston, Simon (AUT) 01:53:34
10th - Marques, Duarte Silva (POR) 01:53:37
