Lincolnshire2012

[divingbrit]

Simon Whitfield of Victoria showed he is still a man to watch for in the march to the 2012 London Summer Olympics after posting a fifth-place finish in a triathlon World Championships Series race this morning in his first return to Sydney, Australia, since he made his golden breakthrough in the sport 10 years ago.

The 34-year-old Whitfield, who completed a magical run to win the first triathlon Summer Olympics gold medal in 2000 on the challenging Sydney course, enjoyed a solid day all the way through the 1.5-kilometre swim, 40-kilometre bike and 10-kilometre run to complete the season-opening World Championship series race with a time of one hour 51 minutes 42 seconds.

"I had a couple of nostalgic moments out there today, but I really try to stay in the moment and I was definitely thinking on what had to get done today," said Whitfield, who also won the silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

Bevan Docherty of New Zealand, who has Olympic silver and bronze medals to his credit, won the season-opening event in 1:51:27. Russia's Alexander Brukhankov took the silver medal in 1:51:33 and David Hauss of France was third in 1:51:34.