Aileen Reid claimed a brilliant silver at the Tiszaujvaros World Cup in Hungary, her first World Cup podium of the season.
Reid safely negotiated Saturday’s semi final with a controlled effort which saw her finish 5th and well inside the top 14 who would automatically progress from each heat.
Sunday’s elite women’s race saw 30 of the top females racing over the sprint distance. In a re-run of Saturday’s semi final it was Great Britain’s Lucy Hall who would set the early pace and led out of the water. Hot on her heels was fellow GB athlete Natalie Milne.
Some 16 seconds back were the chasers with Aileen Reid amongst them after a solid opening leg.
The leading duo of Hall and Milne recognised there were stronger runners behind so pushed on hoping to build on their advantage. They managed to do just that and gained another 10 seconds on the chase group of eight by the time they hit T2.
Reid was in a tangle entering T2 as the group crossed paths attempting to rack their bikes, but it mattered little as they all exited in pursuit of the leaders together.
Milne and Hall were slowing at this stage as the chasers Reid, Hursey and Vilic slowly chipped away at their advantage.
Katie Hursey of the USA was too strong and pulled away over the final kilometres to claim back to back World Cup wins. She certainly saved the best till last as her time of 1:00:25 was the quickest of the weekend as she shaved almost 2 minutes off her semi final run time.
Aileen Reid finished less than 30 seconds back in the silver medal position and was delighted to pick up her first World Cup podium of the season.
“I’m delighted; I didn’t think I had that in me today.” Reid commented after the race.
“My plan in the semi’s was just to run easy in the heat as long as I qualified and I’m really glad it paid off today because it’s about backing the races up.”
Sara Vilic of Croatia picked up her first ever World Cup podium after finishing in 3rd.
Aileen Reid’s silver medal will give her confidence going into the second half of the season with the ITU World Triathlon Series stopping off in Stolkholm before the Grand Final in London from the 11th – 15th of September.
In the elite men’s race Conor Murphy had secured his place in the final as one of the fastest losers from his semi final on Saturday.
The 30 finalists were squeezed into the pond in the middle of Tiszaujvaros making for great viewing for the on looking crowds. The 3 lap course was heavily congested though, meaning it was a tough, physical 750m swim.
Murphy battled hard and got into the second pack. The leading group of 9 were up the road though and motivated to keep their advantage as Murphy’s chasing pack contained many of the pre race favourites and the sports fastest runners.
U23 World Champion Florin Salvisberg of Switzerland backed up his solid swim and bike with some quick running and went on to take his first World Cup win.
Murphy had worked hard on the bike trying to close the gap and ran out of steam a little over the remaining 5 km run. He finished in 25th place after giving it everything he had.
Emma Sharkey suffered a DNF in the junior women’s race after a promising 4th place finish in her semi final. Sharkey’s training mate Georgia Taylor-Brown took victory after running away from the field.
ENDS
Watch the Elite Women’s Video Highlights Here
Watch the Elite Men’s Video Highlights Here
Image attached FOC:
Credit: ITU Media / Janos Schmidt
msj 4848: Aileen Reid pulls away from Sara Vilic of Croatia to claim silver
For more information contact:
Scott Graham
Development & Media Officer
+353 (0)863687548
