Kiwi Triathletes Dominate World Rankings

27th April 2007

Kiwi Triathletes Dominate World Rankings

The latest International Triathlon Union points rankings have been released with New Zealanders dominating men’s and women’s lists in both ITU Points and the World Cup points after great starts to the 2007 season.

Indeed based on the criteria of ranking each country’s third placed athlete, New Zealand is number one in the world for both men and women on the latest ITU points rankings.

Bevan Docherty sits on top of the world thanks to his consistent start to the season, including victory at the Oceania Cup in Wellington, 2nd place at the Ishigaki World Cup, 3rd place at the Oceania Championship in Geelong and a 4th place finish at the Mooloolaba World Cup race.

Docherty is closely followed by fellow Kiwis Kris Gemmell (3rd) and Shane Reed (6th) in the top ten. The only other country to have more than one athlete inside the ITU points top ten is Australia with Brad Kahlefelt (2nd) and Courtney Atkinson (4th) ensuring that Oceania has a firm grip on the points race early in the year.

Similarly the New Zealand women dominate the top ten with three athletes ranked in that category. Debbie Tanner’s good early season form has been rewarded with 3rd place, closely followed by Andrea Hewitt 4th and Samantha Warriner in 6th.

The women’s category too is an Oceania benefit with three Australians also inside the top ten, led by current number two Emma Snowsill, Annabel Luxford (5th) and Erin Densham at 7th.

Triathlon New Zealand High Performance Director Stephen Farrell says that while triathlon’s elite athletes are on top of the world, no one is resting on their laurels.

“The consistency of our top athletes has been the strength so far this year with our top 3 or 4 men and women able to perform against world class opposition in races that matter. We’re excited that the hard work and dedication of our coaches and athletes has enabled continued success of our athletes in a truly international environment”, said Farrell.

“If there is a concern it is the gap that has opened up to our 4th ranked male and 5th ranked female athletes. With qualification to big events contingent on our depth as one of many criteria, it is imperative that we ensure our next group of athletes is as close as possible to our very best. In a complicated system we must also ensure that we maintain high rankings in both the World Cup and Olympic Games qualification categories.”

Most other sports in truly international competition must envy the position of Triathlon New Zealand when New Zealand’s fourth ranked male is 59th in the world and the fifth ranked woman 67th. On the evidence of the rankings alone, let alone recent Olympic and Commonwealth Games success, triathlon must rank as New Zealand’s leading individual sport.

In total an incredible 35 New Zealand athletes (36 including the recently retired Hamish Carter) have current ITU Points rankings inside the top 500 in the world.

The next race on the calendar for the New Zealand triathletes is the Lisbon ITU World Cup race on Sunday 6th May.

The top ten ITU Points list and rankings of all New Zealanders is as follows:

Women Rank Name Country Points 1 Fernandes, Vanessa POR 2903 2 Snowsill, Emma AUS 2645 3 Tanner, Debbie NZL 2305 4 Hewitt, Andrea NZL 2266 5 Luxford, Annabel AUS 2093 6 Warriner, Samantha NZL 1986 7 Densham, Erin AUS 1838 8 Bennett Laura USA 1728 9 Dittmer, Anja GER 1656 10 Whitcombe, Andrea GBR 1643

Plus other New Zealanders 20 Nicky Samuels 67 Evelyn Williamson 117 Carmel Hanley 126 Taryn McLeod 199 Sarah Bryant 203 Rebecca Spence 230 Gina Ferguson 238 Jenny Cooper 273 Shanelle Barrett 277 Anna Hamilton

Men Rank Name Country Points 1 Docherty, Bevan NZL 2676 2 Kahlefeldt, Brad AUS 2463 3 Gemmell, Kris NZL 2452 4 Atkinson, Courtney AUS 2320 5 Gomez, Javier ESP 1725 6 Reed, Shane NZL 1701 7 Kemper, Hunter USA 1428 8 Polikarpenko, Volodymyr UKR 1352 9 Belaubre, Frederic FRA 1303 10 Pais, Bruno POR 1259

Plus other New Zealanders 59 Clark Ellice 82 Ben Pulham 112 James Elvery 136 Terenzo Bozzone 144 Martin Van Barneveld 146 Graham O’Grady 152 Sam Walker 156 Tony Dodds 175 Blair Jordan 210 Hamish Johnson 232 Nathan Richmond 253 Liam Scopes 279 Ben Visser 304 Will Green 320 Thijs Huber 347 Will Curtayne 350 Callum Millward 384 Dylan McNeice 493 Bryan Rhodes

ENDS

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