NEWS

France’s Pierre Le Corre wins 2013 Under23 Men’s World Championship

By Merryn Sherwood | 12 Sep, 2013
France's Pierre Le Corre just slipped off the podium in a four-way sprint for the U23 men's title in Auckland last year, but he made sure history didn't repe...

France’s Pierre Le Corre just slipped off the podium in a four-way sprint for the U23 men’s title in Auckland last year, but he made sure history didn’t repeat in London as he claimed the 2013 Under23 Men’s World Championship title in a sprint in Hyde Park.

Le Corre was in a lead group of five for most of the 10km run before he, Spain’s Fernando Alarza and Australia’s Declan Wilson made their move at the start of the bell lap. They went toe to toe for most of that final three kilometres, before the Frenchman put the burners down on the finishing chute.

“I don’t know what to say, I am very glad, it was a hard race, I’m very happy,” Le Corre said.

I was tired at the begging (of the run) after the bike, I wasn’t feeling good. But then there was three of us and I started to believe and I’ve got a gold medal.”

Alarza outstayed Wilson for silver, his second consecutive U23 Men’s World Championship silver medal after last year finishing second behind Australia’s Aaron Royle. But after a year interrupted by injury, he wasn’t too disappointed with his day.

“It was a little difficult because I got an injury earlier this year, so I wasn’t able to race much. But I had hopes of coming in and doing a bit more than last year,” he said. “It was a very hard race, the swim was very good because I came in third or fourth. And then the bike was very easy but the end of the race was very, very hard and I am very happy for the silver medal.”

It was Wilson’s biggest ITU achievement to date, in what was only his third Olympic distance triathlon race and said partly because of that, he had a nothing to lose attitude.

“Not at all. I’m just really happy to be part of this environment. It’s a great opportunity for me to put the green and gold on, I couldn’t be happier,” he said. “I had absolutely no expectations of myself. I wanted to come in and have fun and I was able to do that. To get a good result is just a bonus.”

Despite the air temperature increasing, it was still cold enough in the Serpentine to warrant a wetsuit swim and it was Russia’s Andrey Bryukhankov that carried his usual World Triathlon Series form into the first leg. He led at the first lap changeover, closely followed by Germany’s Maximilian Schwetz, Matthew Sharpe (CAN) and Alarza (ESP), but then fell away on the second lap as Sharpe and Switzerland’s Florin Salvisberg led out of the water into T1.

A large lead group of 21 then formed on the first lap of the bike but their size didn’t hamper their time and they worked hard to keep the chase pack at a gap of one minute for almost all of the eight-lap 40km bike. Led mostly by Sweden’s Joel Vikner, Italy’s Andrea De Ponti, Russia’s Andrey Bryukhankov and Barbardos Jason Wilson, many took turns as they kept the watts and time ticking over.

Behind them the initial two chase groups merged together halfway through, bringing Wian Sullwald, David Uccellari and Tom Bishop together, and they did manage to cut the gap to just 30 seconds entering T2. However it proved too late as the leaders wasted no time pulling away from the field.

After the first lap there was a clear group of six, Le Corre, Alarza, Wilson, Salvisberg, Russia’s Igor Polyanskiy and Italy’s Matthias Steinwandter. Polyanskiy dropped off first and then Steinwandter started to fall off just as they entered the final lap. From there an intriguing battle ensued with the eventual medallists, before Le Corre pulled out the killer final burst to win in a quick time of 1 hour 42 minutes and 47 seconds.

Related Event: 2013 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final London
11 - Sep, 2013 • event pageall results
Results: Elite Men
1. Javier Gomez Noya ESP 01:48:16
2. Jonathan Brownlee GBR 01:48:17
3. Mario Mola ESP 01:49:10
4. Dmitry Polyanskiy AIN 01:49:21
5. Vincent Luis FRA 01:49:24
6. Laurent Vidal FRA 01:49:28
7. Aaron Royle AUS 01:49:30
8. Crisanto Grajales Valencia MEX 01:49:32
9. Reinaldo Colucci BRA 01:49:34
10. Joao Pereira POR 01:49:34
Results: Elite Women
1. Non Stanford GBR 02:01:32
2. Aileen Reid IRL 02:01:57
3. Emma Moffatt AUS 02:02:00
4. Jodie Stimpson GBR 02:02:06
5. Alice Betto ITA 02:02:09
6. Emma Jackson AUS 02:02:11
7. Sarah True USA 02:02:16
8. Andrea Hansen NZL 02:02:56
9. Ashleigh Gentle AUS 02:03:06
10. Ainhoa Murua Zubizarreta ESP 02:03:26
Results: Junior Men
1. Dorian Coninx FRA 00:51:57
2. Marc Austin GBR 00:52:00
3. Grant Sheldon GBR 00:52:01
4. Raphael Montoya FRA 00:52:19
5. Gordon Benson GBR 00:52:25
6. Jacob Birtwhistle AUS 00:52:28
7. Amitai Yonah ISR 00:52:32
8. Morgan Davies GBR 00:52:32
9. Antonio Serrat Seoane ESP 00:52:33
10. Lasse Nygaard Priester GER 00:52:40
Results: Junior Women
1. Tamara Gorman USA 00:57:08
2. Georgia Taylor-Brown GBR 00:57:31
3. Laura Lindemann GER 00:57:34
4. Jaz Hedgeland AUS 00:57:39
5. Sumire Ohara JPN 00:57:51
6. Cassandre Beaugrand FRA 00:58:02
7. Ditte Kristensen DEN 00:58:28
8. Holly Grice AUS 00:58:47
9. Maya Kingma NED 00:58:54
10. Sophia Saller GER 00:58:56
Results: U23 Men
1. Pierre Le Corre FRA 01:42:47
2. Fernando Alarza ESP 01:42:51
3. Declan Wilson AUS 01:42:55
4. Igor Polyanskiy RUS 01:43:16
5. Matthias Steinwandter ITA 01:43:27
6. Andrey Bryukhankov RUS 01:43:44
7. Uxio Abuin Ares ESP 01:44:00
8. Ryan Fisher AUS 01:44:02
9. Davide Uccellari ITA 01:44:05
10. Marten Van Riel BEL 01:44:12
Results: U23 Women
1. Charlotte McShane AUS 01:55:38
2. Ellen Pennock CAN 01:55:39
3. Amelie Kretz CAN 01:55:41
4. Hanna Philippin GER 01:55:43
5. Joanna Brown CAN 01:55:49
6. Tamara Gomez Garrido ESP 01:55:57
7. Sophie Corbidge NZL 01:56:18
8. Tamsyn Moana-Veale AUS 01:56:31
9. Emmie Charayron FRA 01:56:39
10. Sara Vilic AUT 01:56:57
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