NEWS

France sweeps men’s long distance medals

By Erin Greene | 21 Sep, 2014

France swept the men’s Long Distance World Championships in Weihai with Bertrand Billard retaining his title as the fastest man across the 4km swim, 120km bike, 20km run course. Compatriots Sylvain Sudrie and Viennot Cyril joined him on the podium.

“The organisation (of the race) is perfect,” Billard said. “I would like to thank the French Team, my family and my partners.”

Sudrie, who hadn’t made a World Championship podium since 2011, positioned himself at the front of the pack on the swim alongside Rasmus Petraeus (DEN) and Denis Vasiliev (RUS) while Billard and Greg Bennett (USA) sat in the middle of the field more than a minute back. But with 150km left to cover, the time gap proved no trouble for Billard.

Indeed it was the three-lap bike that changed the race and saw the eventual medallists all but tie up their medals as the only athletes to split the discipline under three hours. Billard was brilliant on the bike, blowing past the nine men that were ahead of him on the swim.

Despite his strong cycle, he showed no signs of slowing down on the four-lap run. With the fifth-fastest run split of the day, Billard retained his crown in a time of five hours, nine minutes and nine seconds.
While Sudrie couldn’t keep pace with his teammate, the advantage he had on the swim and bike was more than enough to hold off Cyril and company in a time of 5:11:50.

Cyril, who got to T1 nearly six minutes after the leaders with pre-race favourite Craig Alexander (AUS), made up major ground on the bike to put himself back in the race. Cyril finished off the day with a solid run that clenched the final top spot in 5:15:34. 

Related Event: 2014 Weihai ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships
21 Sep, 2014 • event pageall results
Results: Elite Men
1. Bertrand Billard FRA 05:09:09
2. Sylvain Sudrie FRA 05:11:50
3. Cyril Viennot FRA 05:15:34
4. Graham O'grady NZL 05:17:53
5. Craig Alexander AUS 05:20:45
6. Gustavo Rodriguez Iglesias ESP 05:21:53
7. Rasmus Petræus DEN 05:22:09
8. Samuel Betten AUS 05:23:26
9. Antony Costes FRA 05:24:24
10. Nikolay Yaroshenko RUS 05:25:41
Results: Elite Women
1. Camilla Pedersen DEN 05:43:31
2. Kaisa Lehtonen FIN 05:47:47
3. Andrea Hansen NZL 05:54:29
4. Ewa Bugdol POL 05:58:49
5. Eva Potuckova CZE 06:00:44
6. Laura Bennett USA 06:02:55
7. Vanessa Gianinni BRA 06:05:40
8. Natsumi Higashi JPN 06:34:14
9. Gurutze Frades Larralde ESP 06:34:25
10. Yasuko Miyazaki JPN 06:41:04
Results: 18-19 Female AG
1. Emma Langley USA 07:11:43
Results: 20-24 Male AG
1. Ryan Waddington AUS 05:36:50
2. Guillaume Lecallier FRA 05:56:03
3. Takaaki Hiraoka JPN 06:21:36
4. Pengcheng Li CHN 06:30:21
5. Ryosuke Otsuka JPN 06:35:22
6. Ben Coventry AUS 06:39:23
7. Yusuke Kobayashi JPN 06:57:37
8. Yeerjianati Baolati CHN 07:10:13
9. Ryo Sagara JPN 07:20:17
10. Adam Palmer NZL 07:21:50
Results: 20-24 Female AG
1. Daniela Kaminska POL 06:58:11
2. Claire Johnstone CAN 07:32:27
DNF. Jade Winter NZL DNF
Results: 25-29 Male AG
1. Craig Davis AUS 05:42:55
2. Grant Wilesmith RSA 06:21:00
3. Tim Glinski USA 06:24:55
4. Alexandru Diaconu ROU 06:31:10
5. Stephen Morriss NZL 06:44:01
6. Ryuuya Kidokoro JPN 06:49:49
7. Akhil Viz GIB 06:54:56
8. Daniel Coombes NZL 07:03:05
9. Nicholas Guz AUS 07:03:33
10. Biao Wang CHN 07:06:57