Hans Battles His Way To A Bronze Medal
Illawarra Mercury
Tuesday November 25, 1997
Not even an ankle reconstruction operation could prevent Illawarra Triathlon Club champion and four-times national titleholder Hans Battaerd from making his mark at the world championships in Perth last week.
The Balgownie firefighter scored a bronze medal in his 40-44 age group division and was especially pleased with his performance as four weeks prior he thought about withdrawing from the championships because of poor running form due to the ankle operation.
One of the first out of the water after the 1.5km swim in the Swan River, Battaerd soon took a substantial lead in the challenging bike course.
Coming into the transition after the 40km non-drafting cycle leg, he had a 2:14 minute lead.
He clocked up not only the fastest bike time (1:01.18) in his age group but out of the entire age group field consisting of more than 1500 competitors, representing 60 different nations.
Going into the world championships Battaerd knew that his run would let him down with only a five weeks to build up run fitness and speed after four months off due to ankle surgery.
Hans managed to hold off the eventual winner, John Hellemans, until the 7km mark of the 10km run then conceded second place to fellow Aussie, Ken Uren, with only 100m to the finish.
New Zealander Hellemans is a former open professional category world champion and has taken first place in every world championships since competing in the age category division.
Second placed Ken Uren managed a 32 mins 19 secs 10km run off the bike which put him in the top 10 fastest runners of all age groupers.
Klaus Runer of Italy was more than two minutes behind Battaerd and finished fourth. Runer was second in last year's world championships in Cleveland, USA.
The remaining top 10 competitors in the 40-44 years category in Perth were from the USA, Germany, Italy and France. With the triathlon season only just beginning, Battaerd is looking forward to a successful one, especially as his run leg can only improve.
Illawarra triathlete Rowan Allnutt blew a tyre and his chances early in the cycle leg after a good swim in the men's 40-44 category and Wollongong-based South African Trudi Sanders finished seventh in the women's 20-24 division.
Hans is aiming to qualify for next year's world championships in Lausanne, Switzerland. The cycle leg is a mountainous, technical course on cobbled roads which should suit Battaerd's strength on the bike.
* * *
Like the battery ad on television, Jonathan Hall keeps going and going and going.
Wollongong's world duathlon champion made his first duathlon appearance in Australia since winning the world title in Spain in September, showed his class by winning the Canberra Healthpact international race on Sunday.
A renowned international cyclist and the most successful duathlete in the world, Hall was keen to display the form that took him to outstanding victories this year.
Despite being in top condition, Hall was concerned before the start of the race that the 5km run, 25km cycle and final 5km run suited the tough national and international opposition more than his favoured world championship distance of 10km, 40km, 5km.
Hall's other major concern was that he had spent little time running of late with his cycling commitments a main priority.
John Muir and Tim Bentley established a good lead on Hall in the first 5km run with the two covering the distance in 15 mins 25 secs.
A group of four strong competitors, Peter Robertson of Sutherland, John Meagher, Craig Alexander and Chris Lee were just four seconds behind Bentley while Hall was back in eighth place, 27 seconds off the pace.
National road cycling champion Hall was quick to pick up the leaders on the cycle leg and took the lead after 6km. He then established a big lead in preparation for the final 5km run home.
Hall covered the 25km in 34 minutes with Canberra's rising star Luke Grattan making up considerable time on the cycle to join Bentley in second position.
At the transition before the final 5km run, Hall held a 1 min 55 secs lead on Bentley and Grattan.
Bentley, one of the most successful duathletes in Europe this year with many major placings including third in the European series, ran strongly over the final 5km to close the gap considerably on Hall, who paced himself well to finish ahead by just 10 seconds.
Grattan took third a further 18 seconds behind while Robertson was fourth just ahead of Alexander, Lee and Brad Kahlefeldt while Jason Chalker was next best.
French star Bernard Lalanne suffered in the heat to finish 13th while English duathlon champion and top cyclist Chris Lillywhite made up considerable time in the cycle leg but failed to match the running speed in the final 5km to drop into 15th place.
Robyn Roocke won the women's event by more than two minutes with Jane Zelkler second and Celine McEvoy third.
* * *
The 1997-98 Nutra-Grain Illawarra Cycle Club's 18km time trial series began on Sunday morning in near perfect conditions.
"The object of the series is not to find the fastest time trialer in each grade, although there will be a prize for that honour, but for the riders to use the three races to improve their time trialing, the winners will be those riders who reduce their times by the greatest margin over the three races," ICC spokesperson Garry Doughty said yesterday.
More than 50 riders turned out for the time trail and were seeded in reverse order with the slowest first and the fastest last, with only a few riders proving the handicappers wrong.
The C grade race showed a return to form by Alvin Coehlo who won from Pat Delahunty and Andrew Campbell. Lou Palermo sprung a bit of a surprise by riding an excellent time to win B grade by nine seconds with Garry Doughty recording third fastest time.
The A grade was a classy field and with no mountain bike races to clash with, a large contingent of off road riders were present.
With Australian time trial champion Jonathan Hall in the ACT winning the Canberra Healthpact International Dualthon, it was left to the experienced John Groom to show the younger cyclists a clean pair of wheels by recording the fastest time of the day of 26 mins 02 secs, six seconds back was Garth Hennessy, with Danny Hennessy recording third fastest.
Junior under 17 rider Tim Delahunty continued to impress by recording the sixth fastest time in A grade. The first of the track opens were held in Dubbo and Mudgee over the weekend.
Best placed Illawarra riders were John Kejda U11 with a first at Dubbo and two seconds and a third at Mudgee, Jaclyn Kejda U13 had three thirds at Dubbo and two thirds at Mudgee.
Not to be outdone, their father Mick chipped in with a second and third at Dubbo, while Peter Jones U17 had a first and second at Mudgee.
* * *
More than 100 entries have been received for the Illawarra track cycling carnival at the Unanderra velodrome on Saturday.
Junior racing starts at 5pm and seniors at 6.30pm.
The State handicapper says that it is one of the best fields of quality riders such as international cyclist Jeff Hopkins off scratch for the handicaps. Other riders to take note of are Charlie Gascoyne in B grade, Graham Stait in C grade and Peter Barnard in D grade.
© 1997 Illawarra Mercury