Kitzbühel, Austria (July 20, 2008) - World champion from six years ago, Ivan Rana proved he's still a force on the world cup stage as he impressively won today's Kitzbühel BG Triathlon World Cup, the last major tune-up before the Beijing Olympics. Rana has spent most of the last few years in the shadow of teammate Javier Gomez but today he showed Spain may have another medal threat in Beijing this August. New Zealand's Kris Gemmell took the silver in an exciting sprint finish over Swiss Sven Riederer.

Russian Ivan Vasiliev was first out of the Schwarzsee Lake but by a slim margin over German Maik Petzold and Swiss Sebastien Gacond. Olympic silver medalist from 2004 Bevan Docherty exited the water eight seconds back while teammate Gemmell was 35 seconds behind Vasilev.

As the men navigated the 40-kilometer bike course, a distinct lead pack of 14 men emerged as the leaders. The group included Rana, Docherty, Riederer and Brit Jonathan Brownlee, the junior world championships silver medalist making his first world cup debut. The chase group was not far behind and those two groups came together midway through the bike. By the end of the 40 kilometers, the second chase pack also caught up resulting in 43 men all riding into T2 together.

As the elite men swarmed the run course, Rana powered to the front of the field. After five kilometers, he had put 20 seconds on his pursuers. As Rana took the bell lap, victory was comfortably in hand and leaped in jubilation as he cruised towards the finish line, winning his first world cup since 2003. Behind him, the real drama would be for silver and bronze. In the final turn for the finish chute, Gemmell broke away first sealing the silver while Riederer outsprinted Docherty for the final spot on the podium.

Kitzbühel BG Triathlon World Cup
1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run
Elite Men - Official Results

Gold - Ivan Rana (ESP) 1:45:23 Click here for audio
Silver - Kris Gemmell (NZL) 1:45:29 Click here for audio
Bronze - Sven Riederer (SUI) 1:45:30 Click here for audio
4th - Bevan Docherty (NZL) 1:45:31
5th - Ivan Vasiliev (RUS) 1:45:31
6th - Laurent Vidal (FRA) 1:45:43
7th - Tony Moulai (FRA) 1:45:54
8th - Filip Ospaly (CZE) 1:45:56
9th - Alexander Brukhankov (RUS) 1:45:59
10th - Maik Petzold (GER) 1:46:20