An emotional victory for Hugo Milner
(GBR) to win World Cup gold in Miyazaki, a breakthrough result for the young
British star. A hard earned silver for Dylan McCullough (NZL) with a dominant
and gripping performance. A huge surge on the run saw Lasse Nygaard Priester
(GER) claim bronze.
A field of 65 world class men lined
up along Hitotsuba beach for the 2023 World Triathlon Cup Miyazaki, featuring
one of the strongest World Cup start lists the tour has witnessed.
The entire field of men was stretched
out in the early stages of the 2 lap 1.5km swim, with many athletes favouring
the inside line as they went around the swim buoy. By the midpoint of the first
lap, Hungary’s Márk Dévay and New Zealand’s Dylan McCullough were leading them
out with Japan’s Kenji Nener in third.
Hungary’s Bence Bicsák and Japan’s
Makoto Odakura were in the midst of congestion right in the middle of the
field.
Devay, McCullough, Nener, Germany’s
Jonas Schomburg, Canada’s Aiden Longcroft-Harris and Tyler Mislawchuk, Great
Britain’s Samuel Dickinson and South Africa’s Jamie Riddle were among the men
to exit the water and enter the first transition of the race, after a tough
beach run.
Germany’s Lasse Nygaard Priester and
silver medallist in Tongyeong last weekend Ricardo Batista exited 35 seconds
down on the leaders.
Onto the 8 lap 40km bike a group of
11 athletes had formed with a 17-second advantage. The chase group featured
Dickinson, Panagiotis Bitados (GRE), Great Britain’s Max Stapley, Jack Willis
and Cameron Main.
Mislawchuk was 20 seconds adrift of
the leaders and admitted to being unwell out on the bike course.
McCullough was really pushing the
pace out front and draining the legs of the field. Japan’s Takumi Hojo didn’t
appear to be making too many pushes and was doing his best to stay with the
leaders. As the men went through transition and onto the 3rd lap, Hojo took an
unfortunate turn which resulted in him coming off his bike and not being able
to finish the race. The leading group was now made up of 10 athletes. The chase
group had managed to pull back a few seconds and were now 12 seconds from the
back of the front group to the next chase group.
By lap 4 of the bike, the main and
chase groups had formed one group of 16 athletes which featured Norway’s Casper
Stornes. As the men started to push to the midway point Mislawchuk and Italy’s
Gianluca Pozzatti, 2022 winner of the World Triathlon Cup Miyazaki, were
working hard to stay in contact with the front group.
Dickinson and Willis continued to
work together as they did last weekend in Tongyeong, taking their turns to lead
the charge. Germany’s Simon Henselieit and Japan’s Mitsuho Mochizuki riding 35
seconds down on the leaders. Australia’s Brandon Copeland and Spain’s Alberto
Gonzalez-Garcia were right up there in the leading group. Great Britain’s
Stapley also took his turn up the front of the bike.
By the latter stage of the bike
segment, the 16 athletes in the leading group, featuring the likes of
Dickinson, Stapley, Willis, Copeland, Austria’s Tjebbe Kaindl, Frenchman
Valentin Morlec, Longcroft-Harris, Schomburg, Batista, Nener, Gonzalez Garica,
Stornes, McCullough and Bitados, had done some work to extend the advantage
over the chasers, with the gap being 45-seconds. Bitados was showing superb
form and talent, in his debut season, riding right up with the best of the
field and in the lead.
Schomburg and Kaindl were trying to
make pushes off the front but the group was so strong and kept reeling them
right back into the pack.
By the closing stages of the bike,
the gap to the chase group had extended to 1 minute with a small group
appearing to be doing a lot of work to rotate through and doing their turns
including Nener, Stapley, Stornes, Schomburg and McCullough.
At the end of the bike portion of
today’s race, USA’s John Reed, Germany’s Simon Henseleitt and Valenin Wernz
were looking to push the pace in the chase group and although they had brought
back a few seconds, they found themselves 45seconds off the leaders. Bicsák and
Australia’s Jake Birtwhistle were 1-minute back again.
Australia’s Copeland initially found
a gap as he made his way out of the final transition of the day and onto the 4
lap 10km run. Schomburg was right on the shoulder of Australia with Nener
sitting in third. Devay and Stapley in 4th and 5th.
A lead group of 7 athletes soon came
together with Copeland settling back in.
After the first couple of kilometres,
Schomburg was exactly where he liked to be at the front of the field, Batista
and Nener right there with him. Copeland, Stapley, McCullough were clinging on
with the front runners.
Dickinson looked to be falling behind
the pace of the front runners and 20 seconds adrift.
Priester, Milner and Mislawchuk were
running themselves up to 13th, 14th, 15th respectively and continued to
overtake athletes as they charged through the field.
McCullough went off the front as he
showed he had something in reserve, at the midway point of the run. Nener and
Batista closed in. The early pace setters, Copeland and Schomburg dropped
slightly back.
McCullough made an impressive start
to the last 5km with a very strong tempo and pace. Batista was running in 2nd
and Milner, who outstandingly had run his way through the field, was now in
3rd.
The end of the 10km run in Miyazaki
came down to a thrilling showdown with the men jostling for positions between Milner,
McCullough and Batista and back to Priester and Mislawchuk, who stormed the
field to end up in the pointy end of the race.
A remarkable closing stage of today’s
standard-distance race saw new British talent Hugo Milner take the tape in
Miyazaki to earn his first ever victory on the World Triathlon Cup stage.
Milner only started in triathlon two years ago and crossed the line in 52nd
place last weekend in the World Triathlon Cup Tongyeong and 21st in the recent
World Triathlon Cup Tangier.
“I feel very shocked to be honest.
The last two years have been really hard. I only started triathlon two years
ago, to this month and I’ve been improving slowly but then this past year. I’ve
kind of just hit a wall in some of my performances last week and today I came
50 seconds right from the back. In some of the World Cups before, I was
finishing outside the top 20. This is my fourth World Cup now so to get the
gold is unbelievable. I was so emotional at the finish because I’ve worked so
hard the last two years and at times kind of doubted myself. To get it today is
a dream come true,” said gold medallist Milner.
A thrilling battle for silver saw
young gun Dylan McCullough be awarded a hard fought silver and the first World
Triathlon Cup medal of his career.
“I’m so stoked to be on the podium
today, it was fourth in New Plymouth at the start of the year, fourth last week
in Tongyeong, so to get silver today I’m super happy about and perfect time
because it’s the end of the season and time for holidays now so you couldn’t
end it in a better way,” said silver medallist McCullough.
The surprise of the showdown was
Germany’s Priester storming home to earn bronze with Mislawchuk in 4th and
Batista in 5th.
“Thank you, until ten seconds ago I
didn’t know I was third, I thought I counted three guys in front of me so I’m
very happy with the result. I really could believe in my run so I just kept on
running and then it became interesting and yes, very happy with that.” said
bronze medallist Priester.
Review the full men’s results.
https://triathlon.org/results/result/2023_world_triathlon_cup_miyazaki/582899
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