McMahon, Gomez back on top

Manama : Bahrain Endurance team delivered in both short-course and long-course triathlons this weekend, with Javier Gomez clinching the ETU European Championship in Portugal and Brent McMahon dominating the Ironman South American Championship in Brazil.

Javier Gomez’s win in Lisbon came as a surprise to him. “Very happy to grab my fourth European title,” he said of his first real test after withdrawing from the World Triathlon Series circuit to recover from injury.

Gomez, a five-time ITU World Champion and Olympic silver medallist, came ninth after the swim. After figuring in a bike pack breakaway that saw him race to the second-best split, Gomez ran a third-best 31-minute 10km to seal the win.

One of Spain’s top bests to win the gold medal at the 2016 Olympics, Gomez will continue to tick the right boxes as he gets ready for the race in Rio de Janeiro.

Meanwhile, McMahon produced his third sub-eight hour performance and set a new course record, smashing the competition in Florianopolis for his second Ironman title.

The former Olympian was well-placed in third after the swim and breaking away on the second lap of the bike leg, clocking a 4 hour 11 minutes 54 seconds and built a massive lead of 10 minutes 12 seconds going into the run. He backed it up with a (2:42:52) marathon, finishing with a 10-minute winning margin.

It was a new record for the fast Ironman Brazil course and a new personal best for the Canadian. It was only 12 seconds off the fastest ever time for an Ironman-branded race recorded by Belgium’s Marino Vanhoenacker at the 2011 Ironman Austria.