Serbia completed a clean sweep of the Elite Women’s podium, while Croatia, Belarus and Malta shared the medals in the Elite Men’s race at the Vlasina Lake Development Cup.
Gabriel Barac (CRO) stormed to victory in the Elite Men’s race, producing the fastest run split of the day with a blistering 15:24 5km to cross the line 17 seconds ahead of Belarus’ Mikita Katsianeu. The victory marks another step forward for Barac, who upgrades the silver medal he won at the Mamaia Development Cup in May and improves on his fourth-place finish at the Balkan Championships in Ohrid.
Katsianeu also continued his progression, claiming his first silver medal of the 2026 season after a series of encouraging performances in recent weeks.
Kai Azzopardi (MLT) secured the first international medal of his 2026 campaign, building on his previous Development Cup finishes of 15th and eighth. A strong closing run saw him hold onto third place, finishing nine seconds clear of fourth.
In the Elite Women’s race, Iva Pavlovic (SRB) led a Serbian clean sweep of the podium thanks to the fastest bike split of the day (33:57). Her outstanding performance on two wheels proved decisive as she claimed gold by just three seconds ahead of compatriot Lana Gavrilović.
Gavrilović was first out of the water, but Pavlovic's strength on the bike created the winning margin. With both athletes recording identical run splits, Gavrilović was unable to close the gap and settled for silver.
Maša Marković completed the Serbian podium lockout, finishing 21 seconds ahead of Belarus' Sofya Kryvetskaya to secure the bronze medal.
For Pavlovic, the victory adds another medal to an impressive 2026 season, following silver at the Europe Triathlon U23 Aquathlon Championships in Banyoles and bronze at last month's Development Cup in Gallipoli.
The podium finish was also a deserved breakthrough for both Gavrilović and Marković. After narrowly missing out on medals on several occasions this season, often by just one or two places, both athletes will take great confidence from their performances as they head into the remainder of the year.
View the full results here.