The second stop of the ITU World Triathlon Series touches down in Auckland this Sunday, which brings forth some of the sport’s top men all vying to take home the next circuit title in the season’s first standard distance race of the year. The men’s elite will battle it out on a choppy two-lap harbour swim, hilly eight-lap bike and finish it off with a four-lap run course.
Men’s Preview
The men’s race will come with much anticipation as four of the top-ten ranked athletes are set to compete.
Mario Mola (ESP) will wear the No. 1 uniform on Sunday after an impressive and explosive start to the WTS circuit in Abu Dhabi. Holding steady in a three-man pack going into the final lap of the run, Mola recorded the fastest 5km run split time in the history of the WTS to break away and claim his second Series title.
Although he only saw a sixth-place finish in Abu Dhabi, the defending world-champion Javier Gomez Noya (ESP) will be back in Auckland looking to earn his first Series title of the season. He will also be stepping up to the New Zealand start line as the reigning WTS Auckland champion three years over.
He and Mola will have strong help from their compatriots, with the Spanish team featuring a full squad of six men on the starting line. Four of those six are also ranked in the top 10 making them a danger bunch of competitors.
Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) and Joao Silva (POR) are also set to headline the Auckland stop over. The Brit has finished second to Gomez on two occasions and his fifth-place in Abu Dhabi will have him gunning for gold.
Portugal’s Silva was back to stunning form in Abu Dhabi when he ran ahead of both Gomez and Brownlee at the end of the 5km sprint. He, like Mola, Gomez and Brownlee, is also a previous Auckland medallist having finished third in 2013.
1 Mario Mola ESP
2 Joao Silva POR
3 Jonathan Brownlee GBR
4 Javier Gomez Noya ESP
5 Fernando Alarza ESP
6 Vicente Hernandez ESP
7 Gabor Faldum HUN
8 Dan Wilson AUS
9 Ryan Bailie AUS
10 Henri Schoeman RSA
11 Aaron Royle AUS
12 Crisanto Grajales MEX
14 Justus Nieschlag GER
15 Marten Van Riel BEL
16 Richard Varga SVK
17 Franz Loeschke GER
18 Conor Murphy IRL
19 Andrew Yorke CAN
20 Bryan Keane IRL
21 Alois Knabl AUT
22 Carlos Javier Quinchara Forero COL
23 Ryan Sissons NZL
24 Alexander Bryukhankov RUS
25 Gregor Buchholz GER
26 Joe Maloy USA
27 Pierre Le Corre FRA
28 Tony Dodds NZL
29 Diogo Sclebin BRA
30 Luciano Taccone ARG
31 Kyle Jones CAN
32 Gonzalo Raul Tellechea ARG
33 Jacob Birtwhistle AUS
34 Ron Darmon ISR
35 Hirokatsu Tayama JPN
36 Ben Kanute USA
37 Cameron Good AUS
38 Yuichi Hosoda JPN
39 Felipe Barraza CHI
40 Gregory Billington USA
41 Francesc Godoy ESP
42 Leonardo Chacon CRC
43 Brendan Sexton AUS
44 Thomas Bishop GBR
45 Benjamin Shaw IRL
46 Jesus Gomar ESP
47 Grant Sheldon GBR
48 Kristian Blummenfelt NOR
49 Jason Wilson BAR
50 Simon Viain FRA
51 Faquan Bai CHN
52 Akos Vanek HUN
53 Jonas Schomburg TUR
54 Aleksandr Latin EST
55 Stefan Zachaeus LUX
56 Marco Van Der Stel NED
57 Sean Jefferson USA
58 Michael Lori CAN
59 Amitai Yonah ISR
60 Jan Celustka CZE
61 Pedro Palma POR
62 Sam Osborne NZL
63 Aliaksandr Vasilevich BLR
64 Thomas Springer AUT
65 Basson Engelbrecht RSA
66 Phillip Graves GBR