Photo: Janas M. Schmidt/World Triathlon
By Kent Gray/Triathlon.kiwi
Janus Staufenberg and Trent Thorpe are through the final of World Cup Tiszaujvaros after comfortably emerging from the first day of the sprint eliminator in Hungary overnight.
Staufenberg was 4th in semifinal 1 and Thorpe 6th in semifinal 3 to speed into the 30-man final which will be streamed on Triathlonlive.tv from 2.05am Monday NZT. Nine athletes from each of the semifinals advanced, plus the next three fastest athletes.
Fresh from victory at European Premier Cup Holten in The Netherlands last weekend, Staufenberg will enter Monday morning’s final as the 9th qualifier following his 52:20 effort for the 750m swim, 20km bike, 5.16km run. Thorpe produced the 18th fastest time of 52:51 with home-country hero Csongor Lehmann the top seed in 52:03.
The top 14 in each of the women’s heats, plus the next two fastest, progressed. Sadly, Olivia Thornbury wasn’t one of them, a crash early in the bike consigning the Southlander to 28th in her heat in a time of 1:03:35. It was a blow after she had run to the bronze medal in the women’s race in Holten.
“Still managed to finish but was a lonely solo effort to the end. Pretty upset and gutted about it but guess that’s the highs and lows of racing,” Thornbury said.
Thornbury will look to quickly rebound at next week’s WTCS Hamburg which doubles as the World Triathlon Sprint & Relay Championships.
