Mooloolaba World Cup 2010

 

Kahlefeldt strikes first new

Sat Mar 27 2010

The 2010 ITU World Cup series launched in Mooloolaba, Australia and Aussie Brad Kahlefeldt grabbed the first win. Great Britain's Stuart Hayes finished second and Aussie James Seear rounded out the podium.

Dylan McNeice of New Zealand was first out of the water in 18:18 and he had a pretty good sized pack closely behind him. With Javier Gomez not at the start and Courtney Atkinson reportedly under the weather, the field of favorites had gotten smaller, but a tight race was expected nonetheless.

Training partners James Seear and Josh Amberger pushed the pace on the bike as soon as they left T1 and steadily built up their lead. The duo was chased by a pack of 22, with Dutch youngster Jan Van Berkel attempting to bridge across. But the 2 escapees were not letting up and by the time Amberger and Seear approached T2 they had managed to distance the chasers by 1:38, and Van Berkel was still lingering in between.

The 2 Aussies bolted out of transition onto the run and soon after Seear took the lead. Behind him the pack led by Ivan Rana, Brad Kahlefeldt and defending champion Courtney Atkinson took up the pursuit. 4k into run, the chasing group of 20 had dwindled down to Atkinson, Kahlefeldt, Hayes and Aussie Cameron Good, but they still trailed Seear by 90 seconds. With 2k to go, Hayes and Kahlefeldt had managed to pull themselves within 10 seconds of Seear and an exiting finale awaited the spectators in Mooloolaba.

"I was hurting at that point," said Kahlefeldt to ITU media, "but I knew it was time to go, so Stu and I put on another push and finally caught James."

Kahlefeldt passed his countryman with a strong effort and crossed the line first in 1:51:31. Hayes also managed to get past Seear, but the young Aussie held on to third.

"I could see them coming, then they went past and I couldn't hold the pace," said Seear after the race.

Mooloolaba ITU World Cup    

Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia / March 27

Top 10 men     

1. Brad Kahlefeldt (AUS) 1:51:31
2. Stuart Hayes (GBR) 1:51:41
3. James Seear (AUS) 1:51:58
4. Dan Wilson (AUS) 1:52:17
5. Danylo Sapunov (UKR) 1:52:37
6. David Hauss (FRA) 1:53:03
7. Ivan Rana (ESP) 1:53:16
8. Jamie Huggett (AUS) 1:53:21
9. Kevin Collington (USA) 1:53:24
10. David Dellow (AUS) 1:53:34