Jun

Lifetime Fitness Philadelphia Insurance Triathlon

By robin

Kiwi’s lead the way Philly

In a race turned into a duathlon due a tragedy the previous day, it was New Zealand’s Nicky Samuels and Bevan Docherty that took the first round of the Lifetime Fitness Triathlon Series in Philadelphia.

After a 40 year old man went missing in the Schuylkill River during the previous days Karr Barth CHOP Charity Challenge, it was decided to cancel the swim leg and instead the elite fields would contest a 5km run, 40km bike, 10km run duathlon instead.

Docherty wasted no time opening up a 30 second lead with a 15:26, 5km run and while he was caught by eventual runner up David Thompson on the bike, it was never going to be enough to deny him, as he once again used his run speed to cruise to victory. Behind Thompson held onto an easy second, while Tyler Butterfield took third ahead of, a seemingly out of sorts, Matt Reed.

Samuels also used the initial 5km run leg to get a 39 second gap on Jenna Shoemaker before heading out onto the bike course, where Shoemaker made up the deficit and the pair entered T2 together. Once again it was the run speed of the Kiwi athlete that took her to a 15 second victory over the tenacious Shoemaker.

The rest of the women’s field was left languishing in the wake of these two athletes with Nicole Kelleher taking third ahead of Pip Taylor and Mary-Beth Ellis.