Manama: Bahrain Endurance 13 Elite Team athletes continued their impressive run in international events following the directives of Representative of His Majesty the King for Charity Works and Youth Affairs, chairman of Supreme Council for Youth and Sports and president of Bahrain Olympic Committee Shaikh Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa.
Javier Gomez withstood a tough challenge at WTS Hamburg to finish second and retained the World No. 1 ranking. It was his fifth podium in the WTS series this year and sixth time on the podium in Hamburg.
The two-horse race over the sprint distance against Vincent Luis of France ended in thrilling fashion.
“I gave my best, tried a couple of times, but I wasn’t feeling great and I knew Vincent was really fast in the last 200 metres. I tried to go before with one kilometre to go, but he could keep up and then he smashed me in the end,” Gomez said.
Meanwhile, Ben Hoffman made his third appearance and recorded his second straight runner-up finish at the Xterra Mountain Championships in Colorado, where off-road specialist Josiah Middaugh extended his winning streak.
Hoffman suffered with the best and stayed in the top three all day.
“Love/hate relationship with this one. One of the most honest and most painful,” said Hoffman.
On his part, Joe Gambles finished third at the 5150 Zurich. He had a good swim with the leaders and rode himself into the lead heading onto the run, but could not shake off Pieter Heemeryck of Belgium and Ruedi Wild of Switzerland who went on to finish first and second respectively.
“Out of T2 I did not quite have the run speed I needed with the fast pace, but was able to run steady for third,” he said.