Posted: May 13, 2007

Triathlon: DeVilliers grabs Gold for S.Africa

Crowd favourite Hendrik DeVilliers of South Africa ran away from a strong field to win his country’s first-ever world cup gold today on home soil at the 2007 Richards Bay BG Triathlon World Cup. DeVilliers came from behind off the bike to catch the lead group of athletes with support from thousands of elated South Africa fans. Over the final 500 metres DeVilliers pulled away from veteran Volodymyr Polikarpenko of the Ukraine to cross the line five seconds ahead. Rounding out the top three was the young Alexander Brukhankov of Russia, a further two seconds back. As the 72 men hit the water for the start of the 1,500 metre swim a large group of athletes reached the first buoy together and then began to thin out after the first turn. World cup newcomer Clayton Fettell of Australia led a long line of men out of the Indian Ocean and into transition including all of the top contenders; DeVilliers, Polikarpenko, Brukhankov, Oliver Freeman of Great Britain, Reto Hug of Switzerland, Cedric Fleureton of France, Steffen Justus of Germany and Brendan Sexton of Australia. This large group of 60 athletes would stay together for the first half of the 40-kilometre bike until a small pack of seven athletes, including, 2006 Junior world championship silver medalist, Brukankov, Dan Alterman of Israel, and Andreas Raelert of Germany would break away and ride to over a minute lead heading into second transition. It was not enough, however, as DeVilliers, Polikarpenko, Freeman, Fleureton and Hug would run down the leaders in the closing stages of the 10-kilometre run course. To the cheers of the South African supporters, DeVilliers pulled away from the group to claim the first world cup win of his career. Young Freeman showed another strong result in fourth with Fleureton rounding out the top five. 2007 Richards Bay BG Triathlon World Cup – Elite Men results 1. DE VILLIERS, Hendrik (RSA) 1:52:53 2. POLIKARPENKO, Volodymyr (UKR) 1:52:58 3. BRUKHANKOV, Alexander (RUS) 1:53:01 4. FREEMAN, Oliver (GBR) 1:53:10 5. FLEURETON, Cedric (FRA) 1:53:28 6. ALTERMAN, Dan (ISR) 1:53:32 7. HUG, Reto (SUI) 1:53:34 8. PIERRECLAUD, Samuel (FRA) 1:53:37 9. JUSTUS, Steffan (GER) 1:53:43 10. BERK, Sander (NED) 1:53:44 Full results are available at: . DeVilliers grabs Gold for S.Africa (AP Photo/ITU, Frank Wechsel)