Bronze for Bishop at the U23 Worlds

Tom Bishop won bronze at the ITU U23 World Championships in Auckland, New Zealand. The 21 year old, who is originally from Derby and now training in Leeds, won his third world championship medal in row, and Matt Sharp set the fastest run split to finish sixth.

Bishop swam, biked and ran with the lead group throughout, enjoying the tough, hilly course. His bronze matches the one he won in Beijing last year, and adds to junior silver from Budapest in 2010.

He said: “I’m really happy with the race, it was hard, how I like it. I wish there were more courses like that.

“The first couple of laps on the bike were really hard, and then my legs started to feel good and I just wanted to push on. I tried to take the finishing kicks out of the guys, but they were just sticking to me like glue.

“On the last two or three hundred metres they came by and I tried to go a bit but (Fernando) Alarza’s got that good little kick and then (Aaron) Royle came by.

“Third is still good, a world championship medal is nothing to complain about, but I just wanted an upgrade, it’s not quite there yet. I’ve got a few more years at U23 and next year at the home world championships hopefully the home crowd will give me a little bit of that extra boost.”

Matt Sharp was happy with sixth place, although slightly disappointed not to defend his title from last year.

He said: “I had a race plan and I executed that today. Unfortunately it didn’t pan out how I wanted, but I’m really happy and my legs felt good on the run.”


Results, men U23:
1. Aaron Royle AUS 1:57:17
2. Fernando Alarza ESP 1:57:20
3. Thomas Bishop GBR 1:57:21
6. Matthew Sharp GBR 1:58:49