Henry Graf finishes a strong fifth

Henry Graf impressively confirmed his strong form this year with another top 10 result at the fourth stop of the World Triathlon Championship Series in Hamburg.

In wet conditions, the Darmstadt native showed a lot of heart in the Elbe metropolis, not letting a fall at the end of the cycling stage rattle him, and finishing the sprint distance (750 meters swimming, 20 kilometers cycling, and 5 kilometers running) in fifth place with a time of 50:47 minutes.

The only athletes faster than the 23-year-old, who had missed his last two races due to illness, were World Championship leader Matthew Hauser (AUS), who repeated his triumph of last year in the Hanseatic city (50:07), Vasco Vilaca (POR; 50:14), Alessio Crociani (ITA; 50:36) and Brazilian Miguel Hidalgo (50:37).

"The race was really fun today. And fifth place – I'm super happy with that. But it's clear that when you see the podium in front of you the whole time, you somehow wish you could get back there, but it's still a great result for me," said Graf after the final sprint down Poststraße to Rathausmarkt, which he managed to make exciting despite mishaps on the bike course.

“You're in race mode, you don't think twice and just try to jump on. You hope that the chain hasn't come off so you can get back in. That worked out pretty well – but it probably cost me a few grains of energy.”

Alongside the Hessian, who is the best German set to compete in tomorrow's relay (starting at 1:50 p.m., live on ARD from 2:05 p.m.), Lasse Nygaard Priester will also be chasing the world title for the black, red, and gold mixed quartet. The 29-year-old achieved the second-best result for Germany with 24th place (51:50 minutes).

Eric Diener finished 28th (51:57), Valentin Wernz came 40th (53:01) and mixed relay Olympic champion Lasse Lührs finished 44th (54:00) on his WTCS comeback.
The complete results list is available online.