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European success in 2010 for Vodickova (CZE) and Malyshev (RUS)

By David Peddie | 21 Dec, 2010

After another exciting season of competition the ETU Rankings for 2010 have been finalised and there are some familiar faces at the top of the rankings.

On top of the Women’s rankings is Radka Vodickova from the Czech Republic with 2420 points. Yulian Malyshev finished first in the Men’s rankings with 1701 points. Both Radka and Yulian maintained their positions having claimed first place in the 2009 rankings, however, both athletes’ endured mixed fortunes this year.

“Success in European Continental Cup races are really important”, said Radka. “I am not good enough to be on the top in World Championship Series races so success in Continental Cup races helps me to survive as a professional athlete and allow me to try to achieve “bigger goals”, like to qualify for Olympic Games in London.”

This was the third year in a row that Radka has finished on top of the rankings and it comes after a change in tactics following an injury in 2009. She said: “I decided to be very careful about running too much. We decided to concentrate on swimming and cycling for 2010 season, playing a kind of risky game. To try to swim and bike away from most of the field at the start in almost every race and hope that they don’t catch me. Our tactics were successful sometimes, but not always.”

“Nevertheless, I had two main goals for the season – to win European Cup again and earn enough points to have good position in Olympic Rankings. I achieved both and so I am happy.”

Radka’s success has been a great boost for the Czech Triathlon Association who are delighted with her achievements. Secretary General Antonin Bauer said: “Radka´s success is very important for us, because she is one of the candidates for participation at the Olympic Triathlon Race in London 2012.

“Her achievement is very important for motivation of other Czech triathletes and her success represents good name of the Czech Republic as well as Czech triathlon.”

Despite failing to win any European races this year, Yulian’s strong 2009 performance was enough to keep him top. He said: “This season was very difficult for me. Certainly at the beginning of the season I was hoping to do something fantastic but in most competitions this year, I was disappointed. I ran better in 2009.”

Yulian said a change in training regime was not as successful as he had hoped but vowed to come back stronger, “Next year I am going to do a long and serious training programme before next season, he said.

“I made some mistakes during last winter but this has allowed me to understand how to train properly. Without trying something it is impossible to improve yourself.”

Both Radka and Yulian were awarded 3,750€ in prize money for finishing top of the rankings.

In second and third place there was much change in the final positions from previous years. In the Women’s rankings, Olesya Prystayko from Ukraine finished second and Maria Czesnik from Poland was third.

Olesya said: “The end result of season 2010 was a pleasant surprise for me. The following season promises to be more successful and I hope to continue to improve my results.”

Spain’s Javier Gomez finished in second place for the Men’s rankings with Russia’s Alexander Brukhankov third. The prize money awarded in each category for second and third place was 3,000€ and 2,250€ respectively.

Alexander said: “I am so happy with to finish third in the ETU rankings.

“My goals for next year is the podium in European Championship 2011 in Pontevedra.”

For a full list of the 2010 ETU rankings, click here.