Kiwis Must Regroup After Yokohama Postponement

20th April 2011

Kiwis Must Regroup After Yokohama Postponement

Triathlon New Zealand will monitor closely the effects of the postponement of next month’s planned Dextro Energy ITU World Champs Series race in Yokohama with National Coach Greg Fraine confident it will not have an adverse affect on New Zealand’s Olympic planning.

The International Triathlon Union made the decision due to Japan’s ongoing nuclear reactor crisis, with triathletes scheduled to swim 1.5km in Yokohama Harbour on May 14, some 300km south of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant.

With countries vying for vital Olympic qualifying points and a place amongst the top eight nations to receive three starting positions for men or women, Fraine says there will be some readjustment but is confident points can be made up elsewhere now Yokohama has been postponed, giving others an edge when they race at the Monterrey World Cup race next month.

“We’ll possibly lose a couple of spots as others pick up points in Mexico but we have time to make up the lost ground with another year of qualifying still to go. The key will be banking some good performances later in the year. We were hoping for Bevan to score well in Yokohama but we’ll wait and see how they reschedule the race into the calendar and for now concentrate on other events this year.”

Bevan Docherty, Ryan Sissons and James Elvery were scheduled to race in Yokohama for the men who are currently ranked 5th of the 8 top nations on Olympic qualifying points while in the women’s (currently 3rd) Debbie Tanner, Nicky Samuels and Kate McIlroy were due to be on the start line.

The next round of the World Championship Series will now take place as per the calendar, in Madrid on June 4-5.

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