On a crystal clear day the City of Sater Sweden was once
again host to a major long distance triathlon event; the ETU Long Distance
Triathlon Championships.
At 8.00 the cream of European athletes took to the water
with the elite men setting off first followed by the elite women and then the
Age Group athletes for the 4km Swim, 120k bike and 30km elite.
In the men’s elite, the field soon split up into a group
of six athletes who finished the first 2k lap in 24mins 20secs and were
followed by another larger pack of 9 athletes some 40 seconds later. These
first two packs held the eventual podium winners.
First out in the swim was Tomas Bednar (CZE) in 51mins and
58 seconds followed closely by Stephen Baylis (GBR) and Duncan Mckerracher
(GBR) just seconds later.
After the first lap of the five lap bike course there were
five athletes in close contention followed by another pack of four athletes some
30 seconds later. The home nation athlete Jonas Colting (SWE) used his power on
the bike to open up a convincing lead of 2mins by the time they came back into
transition.
Second out of transition and onto the run was Stephen
Bayliss but eventual winner Gerrit Schellens showed his intentions by quickly
overtaking 5 or 6 athletes to exit strongly in 5th place.
After lap1 Bayliss had reeled in Colting. Schellens was
working his way up the field and overtook Colting and eventually Bayliss. Jimmy
Johansen (DEN) also overtook Bayliss in the final lap but Bayliss held on
comfortably to third place.
Gerrit Schellens, Belgium, was able to claim the title of
European Champion with in a time of 5hrs 48 mins followed 2 minutes 28 seconds
later by Jimmy Johansen from Denmark. Stephen Bayliss Great Britain crossed the
finish line 1 min 40 seconds after Johansen.
Meanwhile in the Women’s elite race the swim was headed
out by Eva Novakova (CZE) who after lap 1 had a lead of 1 minute and extended this to be out into T1
with a 2 minute advantage. She came out of the swim in a time of 55mins 14
seconds
She was followed by first a group of four and then another
group of 6 athletes all in close contention.
The women’s swim time was almost as fast as the men’s!
However after lap 1 of the bike Abigail Bayley was in the
lead followed closely by Rachel Horn both from (GBR) with Tove Wiklund (SWE) in
third.
Horn came into transition 20 seconds ahead of Bayley
followed by Tove Wiklund 1 ½ minutes
later. Sara Gross was then in 4th place.
In the second lap of the run Gross had made it to the
front whilst Comerford moved up from 6th to 2nd place.
Gross was however running strongly and Commerford was unable to close the gap.
Meanwhile Natalia Barkun (BLR) moved into third place.
The athletes stayed in this order until the finish and so
Sara Gross (GBR) became the European Champion with Bella Comerford (GBR) in the
silver medal position and Natalia Barkrun (BLR) in bronze.
Full results can be found on http://www.sater-triathlon.com