Kiwi Goes Top Ten in Africa

Kiwi Goes Top Ten in Africa

Aucklander Ryan Sissons backed up his strong 6th place opening to the World Triathlon Series with a steady 10th place in South Africa this morning NZT, as the International Triathlon Union took the series to the African continent for the first time.

Ryan Sissons ran with the motivation of knowing his grandparents were there watching him race for the first time in his career, posting one of the quickest run splits on the day to finish 10th at the latest World Triathlon Series event in Cape Town.

The series was racing for the first time in Africa which meant a first visit back to the continent for Sissons in 14 years since his family moved to New Zealand from Zimbabwe. It was the first time in 8 years that Sissons had seen his grandparents as they made the trip to Cape Town to watch the race and catch up with their proud Kiwi grandson.

A very cold swim saw Sissons emerge from the water one minute down on the leaders and with Javier Gomez and Jonathan Brownlee in that lead group more time was lost on the bike. Sissons was the sole Kiwi (male or female) racing in South Africa, meaning the dynamic of the race was very much different to the season opener in Auckland.

Once on to the run Sissons began picking off competitors, to eventually finish in 10th place for an overall world ranking of 6 after the opening 2 WTS events. Sissons ran 30:28 for the 10km, the 6thquickest in the field with Gomez running 30:23 on his way to his second victory of the year ahead of Brownlee and Dmitry Polyanskiy (Russia).

For the ITU race review and link to full results, CLICK HERE

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