Adam Cashmore placed fifth in his age group at the International Triathlon Union titles.
WARRNAMBOOL triathlete Adam Cashmore has finished sixth in his age group at the world triathlon championships in Auckland.
Cashmore finished out of the placings in the 35-39 years class at the International Triathlon Union titles in the New Zealand city yesterday.
The 35-year-old won silver at the 2011 titles in Beijing, but a poor swim leg combined with a stronger field meant he was out of medal calculations early in Auckland.
Cashmore said the disappointing result came as a surprise after he entered the event in good shape and with promising results under his belt.
He won his age group at the Victorian Duathlon Championships earlier this month and performed well at an Olympic-distance event at Traralgon.
“Last year I was in the 30-34 age group. This year I’ve gone up to 35-to-39,” he said.
“I’m not sure whether it’s because more people wanted to race in New Zealand.
“I just missed out in the swim and it went from there.”
Cashmore was 17th out of the water, completing the 1500-metre swim leg in 25.41.
He made up ground on a hilly 40-kilometre bike leg (1.02.17) and a flat 10-kilometre run (34.51), without ever threatening to upstage the leaders.
Including transitions, he finished in 2.08.51, and 43rd overall.
Cashmore said swimming was his worst discipline, and was something he had worked on with respected Warrnambool coach Jayson Lamb.
“I’m reasonably happy with my bike split and my run split,” he said.
“We had pretty tough conditions in the ocean. (Swimming) is my weakest leg. It’s hard keeping in good shape for all three legs.
“Maybe I’ve got to give up a bit more time on the other two legs.”
Cashmore was one of two south-west Victorian triathletes competing at Auckland.
Camperdown’s Murray Fry was 24th in his 50-54 years category and 404th overall, after finishing in 2.25.23.
He completed the swim in 24.56, the bike in 1.11.11 and the run in 42.23.
Fry said he was pleased with the result, an improvement on his 37th at Lausanne, Switzerland in 2006.
“I’ve had some Achilles problems in the lead-up and I gave it a little tweak getting a bit excited with 800 metres to go. Luckily it happened near the end,” he said.
Fry said his efforts across the Tasman Sea justified rising at 5am each day to train.
“That’s the unfortunate thing, with the timing of it, you’re training right through the middle of winter in the dark and the wet,” he said.
“That’s what you think of when you’re on the bike. You think of your hardest training session in the middle of winter.”
