Great Britain’s Jimmy Kershaw celebrated his 20th birthday a day early, taking his first ETU European Cup medal with Silver in The Netherlands on Saturday
A European Championship medallist at Youth and Junior level, 19-year-old Jimmy Kershaw secured his biggest result to date at Senior level when taking second place in Rotterdam on Saturday at the ETU Sprint Triathlon European Cup. It was an early birthday present too as Jimmy turned 20 the following day.
Held over the Sprint distance, water temperatures meant a non-wetsuit opening 750m swim. While almost 40 seconds off of the leaders in the water, Kershaw was able to bounce back with the fastest bike split of the day to be one of a group of five athletes who had a small buffer of 11 seconds starting the 5km run over a chasing group of 13. Fellow Brit Douglas Roberts – second recently in Weert – was among that chasing pack.
Home athlete Jorik Van Egdom, who took the Bronze medal earlier this year at the ITU Duathlon World Championships in Aviles, set the fastest run time of the day to take victory, with Kershaw holding off the chasing Francesc Godoy (ESP) to take the Silver.
Marc Austin finish 17th, despite suffering a bad crash during the last lap. Beau Smith 26th while Samuel Dickinson suffered a puncture which forced him out of the race.
The women’s race in Rotterdam, venue for the ITU World Triathlon Series Grand Final next year, was Claire Michel (BEL). Continuing her return to full fitness after a long time out with injury, Georgia Taylor-Brown finished fifth. Zoe Thomas and Fenella Langridge also raced well to be part of the lead group at T2 and they finish 10th and 11th respectively.
Rotterdam ETU Sprint Triathlon European Cup – Saturday 23rd July 2016
750m / 20km / 5km
Men
1st – Jorik Van Egdon (NED) – 55:30
2nd – Jimmy Kershaw (GBR) – 55:39
3rd – Francesc Godoy (ESP) – 55:45
10th – Douglas Roberts (GBR) – 56:11
17th – Marc Austin (GBR) – 57:18
26th – Beau Smith (GBR) – 58:40
DNF – Samuel Dickinson (GBR)
Women
1st – Clare Michel (BEL) – 1:01:16
2nd – Kirsten Kasper (USA) – 1:01:24
3rd – Sophie Malowiecki (AUS) – 1:01:33
5th – Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR) – 1:02:20
10th – Zoe Thomas (GBR) – 1:03:25
11th – Fenella Langridge (GBR) – 1:03:46
Full results: View here.
