Gomez clinches ITU World Triathlon title
ABU DHABI — Javier Gomez fended off challenge from Thomas Bishop to clinch his maiden ITU World Triathlon Abu Dhabi in Yas Island on Saturday.
The five-time ITU World Champion marked his 50th World Triathlon Series race with finish timing of 1:52:31. The Spaniard is returning after almost a year break and wasn’t entirely happy with his 13th career WTS victory.
“It is great to come back this way. I still had a few mistakes as I didn’t swim very well and had a bad T2. But I knew it was going to be a tough run, and with Tom Bishop it was very technical. On the third lap, we slowed down a lot, just trying to save energy for the last lap and I made my move with about 3km to go and I won, so it worked well,” Gomez said after his 37th Series podium.
Great Britain’s Bishop won silver medal, which was first of his WTS career.
The bronze went to France’s Vincent Luis. It was a spirited performance from Fernando Alarza of Spain, who ran from 12th to finish in fourth place.
Earlier on Friday, New Zealand’s Andrea Hewitt won the women’s 2017 ITU World Triathlon as she edged out Great Britain’s Jodie Stimpson by an inch in an epic sprint battle that came down to the wire.
“I raced two weeks ago, my race of this year in Tiga and I won. So I knew I was coming here really fit,” Hewitt said after the race.