Europe Triathlon

Just between races here in Alanya but what a start to the day !

The swim was led by Russian athlete, Maria Chuyko. Just behind her came Andreea Balan ROU and then Ekaterina Spitcyna RUS.

Out onto the 3-lap bike and these three were joined on the first lap by defending champion, Alberte Kjær. She looked strong and was in a better position than when she raced last year and won.

A crash on the second lap, took Chuyko out of the race and that was when Kjaer accelerated away to lead into T2 with a 25 second advantage over the chase pack. Once out onto the run that was it – she was in command and her stunning run pace took her to a comfortable victory. Behind her after missing the leaders in the swim, Yuval Gome ISR was making up places on the stronger swimmer, Lianne Witkin ISR. In front of them were still the powerful runners, Noémi Sárszegi HUN and Elizaveta Zhizhina RUS.

Gome overtook Witkin half way around the run and was working hard to catch the athletes in the medal position. Equally, Sarszegi and Zhizhina were working very hard to keep way from her and if the course had been longer then perhaps Gome would have caught them. For her it was a very good fourth but for the Russian it was a great silver and her first individual international medal. Bronze went to Sarszegi and this place will greatly enhance the Hungarian rankings.

No rest – the Elite Women are up next.