Planitzer took an early lead as he did the previous day and bringing the Austrian team into first position after the run. He managed to keep this lead by the end of the first relay change, with strong bike and ski legs. Germany came second 13 seconds behind and Norway in third place. In the women’s race Grabmullerova gave the Czech team the lead followed by the Norwegian and the German team coming into the first changeover together.

After the first changeover, Pauli from Germany and Johansen from Norway made blistering starts and managed to leave Letenska from the Czech Republic far behind. The Slovakian team already was out of the competition by this stage of the race, five minutes behind. Johansen and Pauli were together on the bike, but the Norwegian used her excellent skiing skills to make a gap of 30 seconds at the end of the her leg.

In the men’s race, Frank from Germany took the lead immediately and extended it to almost a minute by the end of his ski leg. Norway were working hard to maintain second, while Tauderer from Austria lost his third position to the excellent local Barton. The Czechs followed in 5th, while the mediterranian teams of Spain and Italy seemed to be out of sorts in the freezing temperatures.

Into the final leg, Kalnen from Norway tried to maintain her lead but yesterday’s champion Sigrid Lang fought hard and showed her dominance by catching her on the bike. With a stellar performance, Lang turned a 30 second deficit into a lead of the same time. Although Kalnen tried her best to fight back on the skis, Lang took the gold for Germany. Norway won silver, the third position on the podium went to the Czech Republic and Slovakia finished 4th.

The large crowd that lined the course all weekend witnessed a thrilling last leg in the men’s competition. Schrenk from Germany seemed to have expended his energy yesterday, as Pedersen from Norway and home favourite Patrick Kuril rapidly closed the gap. Germany and Norway turned the corner to the finish staight side by side, but the norwegian had just enough in reserve to out sprint Schrenk in a thrilling finish. Kuril delighted the home crowd by claimed bronze for Slovakia. World Champion Sigi Bauer came in fourth place for Austria and Kobr took fifth place for the Czech Republic.

Two great days of thrilling competitions, came to a culmination with the age group and junior races race. Full results for these races and all the competitions this weekend, plus official photo galleries may be found on the ITU website – www.triathlon.org.