Fastest out the water was fellow South African Henri Schoeman, the only swimmer to break five minutes for the 400-metre swim, clocking an impressive 4min 50sec. Next out was Nikolas Fejer of Slovakia (5:07), then came the Austrian duo of Erik Bildstein and Martin Bader (5:16 and 5:17 respectively) before Belgium’s Christophe De Keyser emerged alongside Sullwald (5:26 and 5:27).

Naude came out seven seconds adrift. Naude was leading on the bike (13km), but was soon caught by the chasers, whereupon Sullwald took control of matters. The eighth-placed finisher at the inaugural Olympic Youth Games in Singapore recently was in total command as he needed only 20min 11sec for the 13km bike leg. He showed his prowess by handling the technical two-lap course with aplomb.

As if that was not enough Sullwald flew through the 3km run in 10:40. No one else was able to break the 11min barrier. Sullwald had a 17sec margin over compatriot Naude when he crossed the line in 37:02.

High Performance Coach Emma Swanwick was duly impressed with both athletes. “This is a good confidence-building result ahead of the World Championships in Budapest this coming weekend.”

The World Championships, or Grand Final, takes place from 8-12 September.

Results
1 Wian Sullwald SA 37min 02sec
2 Rudolf Naude SA 37:19
3 Lukas Gaggl AUT  37:40
4 Jacopo Butturini ITA 37:46
5 Maarten De Bolster BEL 37:57

Ever-improving Kate Roberts finished 11th in the women’s race and in the men’s race it was Erhardt Wolfaardt who topped the South African results, finishing 14th.

The race was held over the half the usual distance, a 750m swim, 20km cycle and 5 km run, making it a far more intense affair than the Olympic distance of 1500m swim, 40km cycle and 10 km run.

The men saw some 73 athletes jump into the 21 degree Celcius waters of Lake Geneva. With the race being half the usual distance, it was very difficult for any major breaks to take place and so a huge bunch of 50 cyclists hit the technical and hilly four-lap 20km course.
Britain’s Jonathan Brownlee took a group of five on a short break which forged a gap of 15 seconds, but that was closed down on the second lap and the big bunch came into the second transition for the 5km run together.

What followed was a mad sprint over 5km and Brownlee had too much speed to win the first ever sprint world championships, 12 seconds ahead of compatriot Tim Don, making it a British 1-2. Brownslee took 52min 57sec to complete the race while Wolfaardt crossed the line in 53.59 for 14th.

Australia’s Emma Moffat attacked the 750m swim in typical Moffat fashion, immediately opening a gap over the bunch. With her went four other women, including the Swede Lisa Norden.

Roberts emerged 10seconds adrift from the swim, and with this being a shorter and faster race than normal, had her work cut out and never really recovered.

In the final kilometre of the 5km run, Norden put in a surge and was able to draw away from Moffat for a 14sec win.

Two other South Africans were in action in the women’s race — Andrea Steyn ended 25th and Carlyn Fischer 41st.

Results
Men
1 Jonathan Brownlee                  GBR                           52.57
2 Tim Don                                    GBR                           53.10
3 David Hauss                           FRA                           53.16
4 Brad Kahlefeldt                  AUS                           53.19
5 Dan Wilson                            AUS                           53.25
14 Erhardt Wolfaardt                  SA                           53.59

Women
1 Lisa Norden                           SWE                           58.02
2 Emma Moffat                           AUS                           58.16
3 Daniela Ryf                           SUI                           58.51
4 Erin Densham                           AUS                           59.09
5 Felicity Abram                           AUS                           59.16
11 Kate Roberts                           SA                           59.47
25 Andrea Steyn                           SA                           1:01.43
41 Carlyn Fischer                  SA                           1:04.51

Du Plessis has raced in all five races, which is the reason for his commanding lead. In 2009 the 32-year-old from Sasolburg had been totally dominant in the series. This year however is a different matter. Du Plessis battled with flu for a long period in the beginning of the year and has missed out on a lot of training, hence not coming into the series in the same shape as in 2009.

His focus has also shifted towards the latter stages of 2010 and he has upped his mileage in training for the 70.3 in January next year. Du Plessis finished second at the last race in Giba Gorge on 15 August behind the Xterra athlete Lieuwe Boonstra.

Boonstra has missed one race and that is costing him as overall his performances per event are on the whole better than du Plessis. The one race missed means Boonstra is trailing du Plessis by 17 points; unless Du Plessis has an “absolute shocker” in the final, Boonstra will not be able to surpass him.

Nadia Pretorius leads the women’s standings ahead of Carla Van Huysteen by a whopping 22 points. Pretorius is the only athlete who has competed in five races and that is counting heavily in her favour.

The overall winner of the series pockets R10 000 prize money

The talented 27-year-old clocked 2hr 04min 41sec to place just over a minute behind winner Paula Findlay of Canada.

Sixty-two women dived into the Schwarzsee Lake to start the 1.5-kilometre swim, with Americans Sara McLarty and Laura Bennett making their way to the front right from the start. Emma Moffatt (Aus) and Claudia Rivas (Mex) hung on the Americans’ heels as the women started the second swim lap, with the rest of the group getting strung out behind.

McLarty and Bennett broke away on lap two, building a 17-second advantage by the time they exited the lake. Rivas led the group out of the water next, with a pack of 19 women, including Roberts, only seconds behind.

The chasing 19 quickly caught the leading trio out of the water and the group of 22 athletes then proceeded to open a gap of almost 90 seconds halfway through the race. Heading into T2 (Transition Two) for the run, the lead had grown to 1:45. This though is where the group started to split up and Roberts was not able to go with the charging Moffat, Paula Findley, Lisa Norden, Helen Jenkins and Andea Hewitt. These five set a furious pace on the run, so much so, that the normally strong running Moffat and Jenkins were dropped close to the 5km mark.

Roberts, despite dropping off the pace on the run, was having yet another solid race, but the tough bike leg appeared to have taken the sting out of her. Unlike in Hamburg a few weeks ago where she was challenging for a place on the podium, Roberts just did not have the pace to stay with the leaders. But she was still able to hold off New Zealand’s Debbie Tanner by two seconds, to secure her sixth place.

Roberts has now competed in five of the six races of the World Championship Series and finished in the top 10 in four of these. Her consistency makes her a top 10 contender for the grand finale in Budapest from 8-12 September.

Claude Eksteen finished 27th in the men’s race on Saturday.

Elite Women Results
1 Paula Findlay CAN 2hr 03min 03sec
2 Lisa Norden SWE 2:03:06
3 Andrea Hewitt NZL 2:03:10
4 Helen Jenkins GBR 2:04:06
5 Emma Moffatt AUS 2:04:19
6 Kate Roberts RSA 2:04:41
7 Debbie Tanner NZL 2:04:43
8 Laura Bennett  USA  2:04:51
9 Ainhoa Murua ESP  2:04:52
10 Sarah Groff USA  2:04:55

The final leg is the Grand Final in Budapest from 8-12 September. This weekend Roberts will line up alongside the likes of Nicola Spirig, Emma Moffatt, Andrea Hewitt, Lisa Norden, Paula Findley, Emma Snowsill and Helen Jenkins. With a tough bike leg, featuring a number of climbs, the stronger cyclists will have a distinct advantage.

Spirig in particular will like this route, as she is known to be a strong and powerful cyclist. Moffat won the race in 2009 and as such will know how to deal with the climbs. Norden is also no slouch on the bike so Roberts will have to make sure she does not let the women get away from her on the bike if she wants to repeat her last few performances that have seen her climb the world rankings to number seven this year.

Roberts has been in the top 10 in all her races bar Madrid where she had a problem with the bike and finished 12th.

Andrea Steyn will also be racing in the women’s field but her big focus is on the World Duathlon Championships from 3-5 September in Edinburgh. Steyn is part of a group of athletes currently based in Slovenia on a training camp organised by Triathlon South Africa. Steyn had missed a huge block of training due to injury.

On the men’s front, the battle for the podium is looks like being between Olympic champion Jan Frodeno, Javier Gomez who was all but  unbeatable in 2008 and the world champion Allistair Brownlee.

Brownlee won here in 2009 and is the current European Champion, but seemed to suffer from exhaustion in London and was just able to squeak into 10th place.

Our Claude Eksteen will be hoping to get in a good race this weekend as he has been battling with injury since the early part of the year and is not in the shape he would like to be. But he will have taken heart from his 17th place at the Tiszauivaros ITU Triathlon World Cup and hoping things are beginning to fall back into place for him.

Erhardt Wolfaardt finished a creditable ninth at the Monterrey World Cup but has since struggled to match that performance at either Hamburg or London. A good race in Kitzbuehl will be just the confidence boost he needs for the Grand Final.

The Men’s Elite race is on Saturday, with the women competing on Sunday.

De Villiers, who had been battling with illness over the last few years and has gone back to the type of training that saw him do so well in 2008 and the results are beginning to come through.

On Sunday at the London Triathlon, he finished sixth, less than a minute behind winner Australia’s Courtney Atkinson and the UK’s Tim Don.

De Villiers was in a big group out of the water. On the bike Tim Don and Stuart Heyes led a breakaway of four riders and were able to open a gap of 23 seconds on the bunch. De Villiers, in the second bunch which included Atkinson, Jarryd Schoemaker and Will Clarke, pushed hard to catch the leaders after 25km of the 40km bike leg.

De Villiers though had bad luck just before he entered into the second transition point for the 10km run leg as a group of riders went down in front of him and he lost valuable seconds. From there on he was playing catch up but still finished a creditable sixt, finishing in 1hr 50min 11sec
.
“That crash cost me time and position, possibly even second, but that is sport and I am happy with my race as I am getting back into form,” said de Villiers from London.

In other results on the weekend, Claude Eksteen, coming off injury finished 17th at the Tiszaujvaros ITU Triathlon World Cup, whilst Rudolph Naude finished third in the Junior race, a mere 18 seconds behind the winner, Ron Darmon.

London Triathlon Results
1 Courtney Atkinson                  1:49:03
2 Tim Don                                    1:49:08
3 Jarryd Schoemaker                  1:49:15
6 Hendrik de Villiers                  1:50:11

Pretorius was once an accomplished 1500m runner with a personal best of 3min 39.17sec but made the switch to duathlon as he did not see a future in athletics after a fall-out with the administration. That track speed has always been his weapon in duathlon and it now seems his bike skills have caught up with his running prowess.

Pretorius and du Plessis were the firm athletes on Sunday and quickly opened a gap on the first 5km run over the rest of the field.

Testament to Pretorius’ improvement on the bike, is that the strong cyclist Brand du Plessis (he has won a stage on the MTN Panorama Tour cycle race) was not able to shake Pretorius over the 20km.

Du Plessis has been battling with cold and flu on and off this year which could well have contributed to his not being able to shake Pretorius, but that takes nothing away from the rapid improvement of the former track athlete. On the final 2.5km run, it came down to a sprint and Pretorius edged Du Plessis by one second.

The runners-up spot still keeps Du Plessis firmly top of the Series standings and he has every intention of staying there. “I have been doing more mileage in the last three weeks, so I am not as sharp as I would like to be, but Johan had a really good race. I am training for the 70.3 in January next year hence the move back to a type of base training right now.”

Du Plessis has 75 out of a possible 80 point after four races in the series. Next is Lieuwe Boonstra on 57 points (after three races) and third on the table is Stuart Marais (54 points after three races).

The women’s race was won by Carla Van Huysteen (formerly Germishuys) ahead of Liza-Marie Bright and Marisa Ferraris.

The next race is on 15 August at Qiba Gorge in KwaZulu-Natal.

Roberts held her own until the run, when fatigue from the race in Hamburg a week ago and unhealed blisters took their toll and she lost contact with the leaders, but nevertheless finished eighth overall to improve her ranking to an all time high of seventh.

Conditions were perfect as the 68 women lined up on the start pontoon. From the gun, World Number One, Emma Moffit of Australia set off on a cracking pace in the 1500m swim with America’s Laura Bennet right on her shoulder.

This was the same tactic Moffit had used in Hamburg a week earlier to great success. They were joined by Sarah Haskins on the start of the second swim lap. Roberts was in the chase group behind them. Close enough not to be worried about the lead the three had when they headed in T1 after 19 and a half minutes in the water.

The trio was unable to force a break early on the bike which lead to a group of 24 women coming together, including Roberts. Once out on the 10km run, things went horribly wrong for Kate Roberts.

“London was by far the toughest field of the season so far, and my legs were still tired from racing Hamburg. I also picked up blisters in that race and they had not healed properly. Just after 3km I started to lose contact with the leaders and slowed down quite dramatically in the last 2km. I was just so ridiculousy tired and in such pain from the blisters. But I am happy that things are coming together for me now and I am placing consistently high up the field now.”

Canada’s Paula Findley took control of the run on the final 2.5km and went to record a shock win and the biggest of her career.

On the men’s side, Spain’s Javier Gomez made it two in a row after winning in Hamburg a week earlier. As in Hamburg the race came down to the run and Gomez had too much for the field as he begins to find the form again that saw him dominate most of 2008. Amongst the South African contingent, Claude Eksteen withdrew after the swim, Erhard Wolfaadt had the fastest bike leg of the whole field and Hendrik De Villiers is making steady progress in his attempt at a top 10 placing at the Grand Finale in Budapest in September.

After losing almost a minute on the swim, Wolfaardt found himself with the race leaders on the last of the 4×10km bike circuit. That effort clearly took a lot out of him, as his run was now where near his best.

De Villiers finished 26th and was very happy with his result. “There is still a lot of work to be done, but I am getting better with each race. My all round performance on Sunday was better than in Hamburg a week ago, so I am very encouraged. My training times are improving and I’m getting better in the races, so it looks as if I am getting back to where I was 2008 when I finished fourth at World Championships.”

Results
Women
1 Paula Findley                   CAN                           1:51:48
2 Nicola Spirig                  SUI                           1:51:51
3 Helen Jenkins                  GBR                           1:51:53
4 Andrea Hewitt                  NZL                           1:51:55
5 Laura Bennet                  USA                           1:52:34
8 Kate Roberts                  RSA                           1:53:04

Men
1 Javier Gomez                  ESP                           1:42:08
2 Jonathan Brownlee         GBR                           1:42:14
3 Jan Frodeno                  GER                           1:42:30
4 Alexander Brukhankov RUS                  1:42:44
5 Mario Mola                  ESP                           1:42:46
26 Hendrik De Villiers SA                           1:43:57
48 Erhardt Wolfaardt SA                           1:46:24

Roberts will be in action on Saturday and the men on Sunday.

A mere two seconds separated the 27-year-old Roberts from a place on the podium in Hamburg last week.

“Hamburg is such a great race with such a good crowd and atmosphere, definitely a day I will never forget. The swim is always brutal, tough bike as it is technical and fast and the run, I tried to hang in there for as long as I could but just did not have the leg speed at the end.

“I still need some work to get onto the podium but patience is key. London will be tougher however”.

Her fourth place moved Roberts up from 12th on the world rankings to eighth – the highest ever by a South African female triathlete. Her fourth place was also the highest ever by a South African women in the World Series.

After missing out on Hamburg, Chile’s Barbara Riveros Diaz has slipped from first to third in the world rankings and will no doubt be looking to get back on top of the standings in London. In order to do so, Riveros Diaz will have to top reigning world champion Emma Moffatt of Australia, who took over the number-one spot with her runner-up finish in Germany.

Sweden’s Lisa Norden (a training partner of Roberts), won a hard-fought sprint by less than one second in Hamburg. If it comes down to a bunch sprint in London, Norden’s devastating kick will be hard to match. Then there is Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig, who outsprinted Norden to win in London last year.

Spirig is having one of the best seasons of her career, winning round three of the Series in Madrid last month, and also taking top honours at the European Championships in Ireland three weeks ago.

Then there is  Aussie Emma Snowsill, who has been lightning quick on the run this year, local favourite Helen Jenkins, who finished third here last season, Japan’s Mariko Adachi, currently ranked second in the world, and Kiwi Andrea Hewitt, who is always
a threat in a sprint.

Roberts made the decision to train in Australia with Darren Smith two years ago and this is clearly beginning to pay off, as she finished fourth in Mooloolaba (World Cup), sixth in Sydney (World Championship Series), 12th in Madrid (World Championship Series) and now fourth in Hamburg.

South African representation in the men’s race are Claude Eksteen, Hendrik De Villiers and Erhard Wolfaadt. Eksteen has missed much of the South African season due to injury, and this will be his first major test of 2010.

De Villiers has also been struggling to find the form that took him to fourth at the World Championships in 2008. There are signs though that he is regaining that form after an intensive 400m interval track session prior to Hamburg. That track session was clearly in his legs when it came to the run and he faded to 36th.

Going into the race ranked 12th in the world, she’ll no doubt be moving up in the rankings after this performance. Amongst the vanquished left in the dust of South Africa’s best ever female triathlete, were the likes of Emma Snowsill, the 2008 Olympic champion and 2007 world champion (Snowsill finished 25th), training partner and seventh at the Olympics, Daniella Ryf and America’s Jenna Shoemaker.

A total of 66 women took to the River Alster to kick things off, with American Laura Bennett and Emma Moffatt going right to the front. The leaders were unable to force much of a break, and after 18:16 in the water, they hit T1 with a gap of only a few seconds on a group of over 20 women. The only major player absent from the front  bunch was Aussie Snowsill, who exited the swim 50 seconds back of the leaders.

Roberts training partner, Lisa Norden of Sweden had to chase to get with the lead group, but once there she was not to be gotten rid of. It came down to a sprint finish between Norden, World N01 Emma Moffit and Irland’s Aileen Morrisson, with Roberts, Vicky Holland and Andre Hewitt right on their heals.

Norden won, covering the 1500-metre swim, 40km bike and 10 km run in 1hr 53min 53sec ahead of Moffit (1:53:53), Morrisson (1:53:55) with Roberts given fourth ahead of Vicky Holland, but both given the same time of 1:53:57.

Roberts’ fourth place is the best ever position by a South African female triathlete on the World Circuit, and no doubt her constant improvements will add to her confidence. which in turn will enhance her performances further. If she is able to maintain this form and even improve, Roberts could well find herself being a dark horse for a medal at the World Championship Grand Final in Budapest from 8-12 September.

A resurgent Hendrik de Villers paid the price for too much intensive training and his wheels came off on the run after a solid swim. “I was out of the water in the first third of the field but on the bike the elastic snapped somewhere and we had to chase really hard for two laps. After that it was cat and mouse, hard, then easy. Hard again, then easy.”

The race was clearly a hard one as some of the bigger names called it quits, amongst them Courtney Atkinson and Bevan Docherty. The race was won by Javier Gomez.

Results
Men
Swim                  Bike                   Run                  Total
1 Javier Gomes                  16:47                  56:12                  29:17                  1:43;07
2 Jan Frodeno                  16:45                  56:09                  29:38                  1:43:23
3 Tim Don                           16:48                  56:09                  30:06                  1:43:57
SA finishers
36 Hendrik De Viliers         16:56                  56:01                  32:04                  1:45;53
43 Erhard Wolfaardt         17:11                  55:52                  32:54                  1:46;53

Woman
1 Lisa Norden                  18:43                  59:56                  34:19                  1:53:53
2 Emma Moffit                  18:16                  1:00:20         34:23                  1:53:53
3 Aileen Morrisson         18:28                  1:00:09         34:19                  1:53:55
South Africa
4 Kate Roberts                  18:35                  1:00:00         34:24                  1:53:57