An exciting weekend of racing saw the biggest number of athletes heading to the central French town of Châteauroux. 2015 saw a great race there and as a test event, the foundations were laid for this year’s Elite Sprint Championships and also for the ever popular ETU Aquathlon Championships. Age Group athletes mixed with Elites, U23, Juniors and Para-athletes for the swim / run.
The first medals were decided on Saturday with the late-afternoon starts giving athletes the chance to take their time with the set up and avoid those “early morning horrors” of a “still dark o’clock alarm call.
A 1k swim was followed by a 2-lap run of 5k. The weather conditions were perfect.
For the Women’s Elite and U23 race, 8 nationalities were lined up for the start. 25 athletes hit the water and it was no surprise to see the strength of Russia’s Valentina Zapatrina take her to the front. She had a lead of a few strides over Lea Duchampt FRA but her slow transition allowed Petra Kuříková CZE to make up ground. One of the consistently fast runners during 2015 and so for this year, was Ukraine’s Yuliya Yelistratova but today was not to be her day in the swim and she lost valuable time that she would simply be unable to make up.
Zapatrina was flying and the only ones who could keep her in sight were Kuříková and Great Britain’s Hannah Kitchen, who was here to defend her 2015 title. On the day it was Zapatrina who put in the best swim and the best run and who lost no time at all in transition. She hit the finish tape almost 10 seconds ahead of Kuříková, whose strong run pulled her comfortably ahead of Kitchen.
Czech Republic saw two of its athletes make the top 5, with Tereza Zimovjanová winning the U23 category and placing 5th overall. A strong team - they collected some good medals. Ukraine’s training programme is clearly working and in the top ten they had 4 athletes, led home by 4th placed Yelistratova.
The U23 and Elite Men provided great excitement and a bit of panic for the Race Referee. 28 athletes were on the start line, representing 9 federations. Great Britain’s Nathan Tweedie led the men out of the water with Ukraine’s Oleksiy Syutkin. Syutkin was the 2014 ETU Champion and following the birth of his first child last year, he has taken a bit of time out of the sport to support his wife. His return to racing in Cagliari saw a strong swim and run over the testing course and a top 15 place at a World Cup. He was back and he looked strong. As Tweedie left T1 he must have known that the fast-paced older athletes would attack. Attack they did and it was the Ukrainians who were in top form on the day.
Upping the pace, Syutkin was heading to the line and it looked as if he would regain his title but behind him Yegor Martynenko was showing superior speed on the run and getting closer and closer. Not only Martynenko, but also Dmytro Malyar was up there and challenging Syutkin.
With the blue carpet in sight Syutkin and Martynenko were sprinting for the line and as they crossed the line, the timing chips registered the same time. It was down to the cameras and the eagle-eyed officials to make the call. Behind them came Malyar.
It was a Ukrainian clean-sweep with ultimately Syutkin taking the gold. Маладец !
For the Junior athletes, it was Simona Šimůnková and teammate Lucíí Obermannová who dominated. The strength of the Czech Team gave gold and silver to the Junior Women, with bronze going to Katja Hočevar SLO.
The French fans had to wait for the Junior Men before they could really celebrate and with Alexis Kardes in top form and setting the fastest run time, it was catch-up for him as he left the water in 5th place and had to make up 17 seconds on the leader. Out on the run and nobody could match his pace. We first saw him earlier this year at the L’Aiguillon sur Mer ETU Triathlon Junior European Cup. With a winning margin of over 20 seconds, this is a young man to watch. Silver went to Luxembourg’s Oliver Gorges and another medal, this time bronze, went to Czech Republic’s Štěpán Zahradník.
It was also the chance for the para athletes to test the course and with France, Germany and Spain being represented there were strong performances from all and medals shared.
For the Age Group athletes, it was, once again, a domination for Team GB. The whole Age Group movement from Great Britain is an inspiration for other federations. The athletes fund themselves, combine racing with a holiday and a chance to explore various sporting locations around the world. In the build up to Championship events, they race the domestic calendar and that of course feeds into the development of the sport in England, Scotland and Wales. With Lisbon, there was a full team management structure. With the smaller events the athletes organise the trip themselves but still attend in big numbers, wearing their GB kit and looking impressive indeed. We often muse … if only other federations encouraged their athletes, would GB win so many medals ?
This Championship saw medals being won by Great Britain, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Ireland, Italy and even the hosts, France but overall it was once again “excess baggage” for the Brits as they returned home.
