From competitors mid-race
countrymen do the best they can as well that’s what it’s all about.”
South African Henri Schoeman won gold in 52 minutes, 31 seconds — 18 seconds ahead of Sissons and a minute and 17 seconds ahead of Reid.
The result left Sissons, ranked ninth in the world and with a previous best at Commonwealth and Olympic Games of 13th, with mixed emotions. Having fought back from 12th after the swim to finish ahead of the world-leading Brownlee brothers, Alistair and Jonathan, fifth was still short of his expectations.
“I wanted a podium; I made that pretty clear right from the very start so to miss that . . . it sucks but I did all I could and pushed as hard as I could on the run so that’s as much as I could ask for,” he said.
Andrea Hewitt, ranked fifth in the world, stepped on to the Gold Coast start line as New Zealand’s best women’s hope but after taking a pounding at the start of the swim and slipping 55 seconds back, she was never in contention.
Taupo 21-year-old Nicole van der Kaay was the best of the Kiwi trio, finishing seventh.
One day after her 36th birthday and in her third Games after a fourth placing in Glasgow last time out, 13th in the field of 26 — almost four minutes behind Bermuda gold medallist Flora Duffy — was a disappointing performance for Hewitt.
— additional reporting Liam Napier