After fighting off an annoying injury Jackpot Racing sponsored athlete Tom Bishop took to Stockholm to compete in the penultimate round of the World Triathlon series against the biggest names in the triathlon world. After Liverpool triathlon was cancelled it was tough for Tom to know what form he was in, but im sure that was all shaken when he stepped onto the starting line. After a promising start in the World Triathlon series earlier in the year at Auckland it was interesting to see how Tom was doing through his rehab process.
A tough swim in extremely choppy and cold water split the whole field of athletes up and Tom managed to make his way out the water directly in the middle of a very strong swim pack. A harsh transition on an extremely steep hill saw Tom fall back into one of the latter cycle packs, but some incredibly good cycling saw Tom manage to work his way into the front pack. In the process, Tom managed to post the third fastest bike split behind just the Brownlee brothers, which goes to show a running injury isn’t always terrible if it turns your cycling into a huge strength!
The sprint format of the Stockholm race only left a 5km run to complete in the race, but the rain kept lashing down. Training in the Yorkshire weather meant Tom was prepared to deal with this weather better than most, and this showed as he moved swiftly out of transition in 12th place onto the run after leaving onto the cycle in 55th, gaining a smooth 43 places on the cycle discipline! After not getting a lot of running base training in it was incredible to see Tom hold onto his position, and even beat current World Series leader Javier Noya over the first half of the run before the Spaniard pulled out. A 15:02 run over 5km saw Tom come in a final positon of 13th for his best finish in a World Series event.
Seeing as Javier Gomez didn’t finish the race (and was behind Tom, when he pulled out) then technically Tom beat him… so that’s quite a nice scalp to stick in the trophy cabinet!