A team effort saw Gordon Benson blitz the opposition and go on to the take the first ever European Games men’s title in the Azerbaijani capital earlier today.
Benson began his campaign steadily; exiting the water in eighth position, 25 seconds adrift of swim specialist Richard Varga.
Slovakian Varga led a pack of six, including Britain’s Tom Bishop, through transition and smoothly out on to the bike. It was here that Bishop came into his own and upped the pace, using his power to drop Russian brothers Igor and Dmitry Polyanskiy.
Phil Graves headed the chasing pack, closing the gap to around 20 seconds. Benson kept with his team mate and eventually the pair broke away to join Bishop, Turkey’s Jonas Schomburg and Andrea Salvisberg of Switzerland at the front.
40km and 56 minutes later, the athletes entered T2 and once again were lead out by Varga with Benson closely behind. Using his favoured discipline to his advantage, the 21 year old pushed the pace to a point where it became a three-way battle between himself, Schomburg and Salvisberg.
However, his rivals had the disadvantage of having to serve 15 second penalties for transition errors, giving Benson the break he needed to get away. From here he held despite a blistering 30:25 run leg from Portugal’s Joao Silva and a late surge from Azerbaijan’s Rostyslav Pevtosv. He took gold for Great Britain in 1:48:31.
Silva by name, silver by nature, the 26 year old had to settle for the second step on the podium after clocking 1:48:42. Pevtsov thrilled his home crowd to grab the final medal in 1:49:04.
Benson said: “I couldn’t have done it without the lads, Phil (Graves) and Tom (Bishop), they helped me out. It’s great to come here and deliver and take the gold home.
"I don’t know there's such thing as the perfect race but it was close enough. The guys did such a great job putting me at the front; I had about 1 min 45 seconds advantage going into the transition.
"Rio is in the background at the minute. I’m just doing what I do and I race to win. I’m still 21 and I'm enjoying myself. We had a good, honest race today and I’m happy to have come away with the gold.
"We’re off to a training camp in the mountains in Switzerland on Tuesday, so whilst it’s great to be here enjoying it, there are more races to do and more races to win, so off we go."
Thrilled to have played a part in Benson’s success and in booking a team spot for Rio 2016, Graves added: “We executed a good race plan. We’d spoken about racing as a team and different scenarios we may come across, but it was very much something we couldn’t call until we were in the race.
“I’m so chuffed that team tactics actually played out as we’d hoped and that Britain managed to get the first title.”
Bishop went on to say: “I tried to tire as many people out as I could on the bike and allow Phil and Gordon to get back with me. I then just pushed it and tried to protect Gordon as much as I could and allow Phil to do what he needed to do to. By the time we got to the run, Gordon had a decent gap which I just wanted him to hold on to.
“He did an amazing job and just kept going.”
British Triathlon Performance Director, Brendan Purcell, was confident his team could deliver, saying: “I think we knew coming into the race that Gordon’s been training very well. He seems to excel in championship races – European Under-23 Champion last year and bronze at Under-23 Worlds.
“We were working on playing to all of the guys’ strengths and putting someone in the place to take the medal, which is what we did.
"We had a few different race options. What we did know was that Gordon was our best bet overall to win a medal. We knew he was in a position to run off the bike and that was the plan.”
The previous day saw solo Brit Heather Sellars out in action, facing a stellar line up including the 2012 Olympic gold and silver medal duo, Nicola Spirig (SUI) and Lisa Norden (SWE).
With high winds, the sea was rough and created an additional challenge for competitors.
Sellars exited the water in 26th place but clawed back a few places on the bike. Her run split of 37:01 saw her jump from 22nd to a hard-fought 15th place in her debut major championships.
Spirig was supreme in her efforts to take a truly deserved win on Bilgah Beach in just over two hours. Having been part of a trio which broke away during the bike course, it was up to Dutch athlete Rachel Klamer and Norden to decide the final podium order. 24 year old Klamer dipped just two seconds clear of Norden, who was pleased to dust away the cobwebs of a foot injury.
Spirig said: “It’s been a great day for me. I think I showed a really strong performance and to win the first European Games is pretty special."
Sellars added: “I would have liked a top-10 position but there’s a lot I can take from the race. It’s been a great experience, both racing and being part of a Games.
“It’s definitely a lot hotter out here than I’m used to in Leeds! But we often go into acclimatisation chambers so I felt prepared for it all”.
Purcell's summed up: “It was Heather's first major championship race. From my perspective as part of the performance team, it was absolutely exceptional.
“All you can ever do is ask an athlete to deliver their best and she produced it. I know she probably wanted a little bit more and to get a bit further, but what you can’t say is she underperformed, which is a huge positive.”
Results of Baku 2015 European Games:
Women
1. Nicola Spirig, SUI, 2:00:28
2. Rachel Klamer, NED, 2:01:44
3. Lisa Norden, SWE, 2:01:46
15. Heather Sellars, GBR, 2:05:27
Men
1. Gordon Benson, GBR, 1:48:31
2. Joao Silva, POR, 1:48:42
3. Rostyslav Pevtsov, AZE, 1:49:04
16. Tom Bishop, GBR, 1:51:00
46. Phil Graves, GBR, 2:03:46
For full results, please visit here.
