5 July 2004
Sater, Sweden: Sunday, 4 July 2004: When the women dove into the pristine water of Lake Ljustern on the edge of Sater, no one could have guessed that when the race came to an end Tamara Kozulina would be the first triathlete from The Ukraine to win an ITU World title. Coming in the shadow of world class Olympic Triathletes Vladimir Polykarpenko and Andrei Gluschenko, the victory for Kozulina is all the sweeter. Lisbeth Kristensen of Denmark and Sione Jongstra of the Netherland were 2nd and 3rd respectively.
Kristensen built up a formidable lead during the swim and bike, but Kozulina was able to patiently decrease the gap to the front.
In the men's event it was Bjorn Sindballe of Denmark, the 2003 European Long Distance Champion, and 2nd in 2002 and 1999 came from behind after the Sweden's Bjorn Andersson took an early lead through the swim and bike. Sindballe was able to hold off a surging Jonas Colting of Sweden to win by 43 seconds, while Marino Vanhoenacker of Belgium quietly worked his way through the field to take the final step on the podium. As a side note, Bjorn Sindballe will be very involved with the 2005 Long Distance Triathlon World Championships in Fredericia, Denmark, as well as the future of this important discipline of ITU.
Lot of great photos and the post-race story, produced by ITU Media, are available by clicking here.
LOTS
OF ACTION IN EDMONTON DURING THE COMING WEEK:
Talk about action...how much can one community do for our multi-sport?
Click here
for more information
- Olympic Solidarity Camp: 80 athletes from around the world have already arrived in Edmonton along with Jackie Fairweather (Gallagher) who has taken on the role of head coach for the camp. Kristine Chambers, Canada's National Kids of Steel Programme Coordinator will join Jackie with head coaching duties, along with coaches from several countries of the Americas.
- Coaches Meetings: On Thursday evening and Saturday morning, the coaches will meet to discuss the elements required to implement a global coaches certification programme, as well as provide input into the process of modifying the Athens Olympic Games Qualification Criteria in preparation for the next Olympiad.
- PATCO Executive Board Meeting: On Friday and Saturday, the Executive Board of PATCO, Antonio Alvarez, President, Alberto Fonoloso, ARG, Carlos Froes, BRA, Dr. Mario Rodriguez, GUA will meet with ITU President Les McDonald to plan the growth of the sport over the next four years.
- ITU Event Organisers and International Official Meeting: On Friday, ITU officials and event organisers will be meeting to review the 2004 ITU Event Manual with an eye to modify for the upcoming year, with Enrique Quesada coming in from Spain to assist with the task.
- PanAmerica Junior Triathlon Chamionships: The best juniors from the 42 countries of the Americas will compete in the championships on Sunday, 11 July.
- Greek Olympic Send Off: One of the most interesting events is the post-race celebration planned by the Greek Community of Edmonton,which will feature Greek food, music, dance and good cheer. The enthusiasm behind the event promises to be a real treat for all of the athletes competing in the Edmonton World Cup.
- World Cup: Oh yes, we almost forgot - the start line looks very interesting and promises to be a thrilling event for the thousands of spectators expected to assemble in Hawrelak Park.
www.itutv.com - ITU's new on-line TV channel will be officially launched at a media event on 10 July 2004 in Edmonton, Canada, host city to the 2001 World Championships and 2004 ITU World Cup event. This exciting new channel will , bring you exclusive video, race interviews, overviews, previews, and insights into the world of triathlon, duathlon and other multi-sport within the ITU family.
The entire 2003 and 2004 shows will be available to view exclusively at www.itutv.com in the highest quality audio and video, with streams of up to 1000kpbs!!!
www.itutv.com is also the ITU's newest live coverage resource, bringing you live audio, pictures, timing and text updates exclusively live as the action happens. Post race video highlights and interviews will be available once the action has finished.
This ground breaking live coverage format was first used at the Madeira ITU World Championships in May 2004 and has been a huge success at every World Cup since.
ITU is proud to be the world leader of live on-line sports coverage, and with the advent of ITUtv.com, triathlon is the only Olympic sport with a dedicated on-line TV channel to it's name.
A special thank's to Interactive Innovations and ITU Media for establishing a strong partnership and making this all possible.
Tom Pryde, who has stood at the helm of Triathlon New Zealand recently stepped aside and allowed Annemarie Jutel to take up the President's role. Annemarie who is a member of the ITU Council on the Audit Committee takes over one of the most successful national federations in terms of staging international events and qualifying athletes for the Olympic Games. On a per capita basis, New Zealand stands tall among smaller nations with 3 men and 1 women on the start line in Athens at the Olympic Games. We're confident that under Annemarie's leadership their will be 3 women in Beijing.
Thanks also to Tom Pryde for playing such a pivotal role with the ITU family - we trust he will still be there when we need him
.
ITU Media is busy making alterations to the profiles of the 50 men and 50 women who will be on the start line of the Athens Olympic Games Triathlon. Additions to the current profile format will include: country flag, personal results from the best results website in the sport at Leipzig University, a personal photo gallery, video of race footage or interviews as available, For a preview of what the new profiles will look like, please visit Andrew John's new profile at www.triathlon.org/profiles/prof-elite-men/andrew-johns-olympic.htm or Michelle Dillon's new profile at www.triathlon.org/profiles/prof-elite-women/michelle-dillon-olympic.htm
ITU Executive Director and Technical Delegate for the Olympic Games Triathlon, Loreen Barnett, recently visited the Triathlon Sport Team in Athens to review progress for the dual events on 25, 26 August. Gergely Markus, the Competition Manager has created a very talented team who are working around the clock to ensure that every detail for the events is in place.
ATHOC in consultation with Gergely Markus and his team have constructed a stadium right on the beach (photo left). The old buildings have been removed and a paved road built so that spectators will be able to watch the swim, bike, run, and transition right in front of them. Not long to go, but things are looking very positive for a wonderful Olympic event.
Other members of Gergely's team are: Vicky Karavagiou, Thanos Nikopoulos, Stuart Fuller, Vassilis and Denis Pavlovich.
ETU
NEWS UPDATE 02 JULY 2004 (OFFICIAL INFORMATION FROM THE EUROPEAN TRIATHLON
UNION (ETU) Gergely Markus, ETU Secretary General writes:
1. Pre Race Press release International Triathlon Holten: On Friday
the annual Triathlon Weekend in Holten (NL) started. Almost 1000 athletes
will compete before an expected 10,000 spectators. The triathlon weekend
starts on Friday evening with dance and music and ends with a laser show.
On Saturday the elite athletes will bear the brunt in a spectacular race,
after which many age groupers will do their race on the beautiful course
in Holten. The triathlon weekend, which turns the small town in the Netherlands
into 'Triathlon-village', and ends with a spectaclar after-race party.
Triathlon Holten will serve, for the 20th time, a fantastic weekend to
all athletes, sponsors, spectators and volunteers..
ETU News Update is written by Gergely Markus, Secretary General
Last weekend he won for the 4th time in 7 years the very tough German Schliersee Triathlon. Furthermore Dutch Champion 2004 Dennis Looze, Steffen Justus (GER), Fedor Filipov (RUS) and Chip van Halen Slater (AUS) are competitors for the places on the podium. In the ladies-race the Dutch Tracy Looze (qualified for Athens), the Czech Lucy Zelenkova and Evelyn Williamson from New-Zeeland are the favorites. Maybe Charlotte Kolters (Danmark) or Irish Julie Murphy may jeopardize the chances of the three favorites.
See www.triathlon.org for live coverage from Holten
2. Paul
Groves, ETU Technical Delegate reports from Swansea, the host city of
the 2004 Duathlon European Championships: I have recently had a site
visit to the Swansea venue. Arrangements are proceeding well and the LOC
are very committed (with enthusiasm similar to that in Geel). They are
very much "do-ers" rather than problem-makers and have put together
an excellent course.
The infrastructure is one that will easily support the event and with
many hotels in and around the course there will be no problem finding
good quality accommodation at good prices. Communication can be either
by road, train or air (Cardiff Airport and Swansea Airports serve this
area). I have a further meeting on 12th July at which time it is anticipated
that the website will be launched.
The run course
is very well laid out and takes in some quite delightful regeneration
scenery. The bike course is a five lap 8k course, which is pretty flat
but with a section at the far end taking the athletes up a small hill
to hopefully break the packs up. The Police are very supportive of the
event and have contributed in many ways to the development on the previously
run triathlon there.
All in all a good venue - and we are looking forward to the running of
the ETU Duathlon Championships. As far as techncial officials - there
is scope for anyone in the ETU / ITU family who wishes to come and assist
- I would expect that they would, as I and others have had to, pay for
their own travel.
We have a number of skilled and experirnced officials in Great Britian
who will ensure that the event runs fairly and safely.
Paul Groves (photo above) reports on his site visit to Swansea
3. New on the www.etu-triathlon.org:
- Results and photos ETU Junior Triathlon European Championships in Lausanne
- Results and live coverage ETU Continental Triathlon Cup in Holten (live coverage on the ETU website!)
- Results of the ETU Prestige Triathlon in Erdek, Turkey
- Results of the first Baltic Triathlon Championships
- Event details for the Balkan Triathlon Championships
- Event details of the Valsana ITU European International Triathlon Cup
National Federations in Europe, please send all information for inclusion in the ETU Update to email:
marge@datanet.hu
SALFORD
ITU WORLD CUP: Information Bulletin #2:
John Lunt, Event Director for the Salford ITU World Cup Triathlon has
provided lots of new information about the upcoming event. Click
here for the laterst information about:
- The Course
- Event Schedule
- Host Hotel, Athlete Services and much more......
Jon Finegold, the founder of ontri.com writes: www.ontri.com is a new community site for triathlon clubs and new triathletes. Individuals can sign up and find training buddies in their area, access training programs, log their workouts and share information and results.
ontri.com also offers a free web application for triathlon clubs and teams to share information, post photos, race results, training calendars and compete in a virtual training competition.
We have over 1500 triathletes signed up today and nearly 50 triathlon clubs using the service. I would love to get a link to our site from triathlon.org as a way to help promote our services to triathletes. I would gladly provide more information if needed.
- Result and live coverage from the Holten European Cup event
- Results and photos from the ITU Lausanne European Cup Triathlon
- Results and photos from the ITU Miyagi Asian Cup Triathlon
- New event details for the Salford ITU World Cup
- Live coverage and full results from the ITU Sater Long Distance World Championships