The 2012 Eilat ETU Triathlon European Championships welcomed Javier Gomez (ESP), Emmie Charayron (FRA), Joao Silva (POR), Fanny Beisaron (ISR) and Ron Darmon (ISR) for the pre-race press conference. Nicola Spirig (SUI) was also on hand to comment on the coming race.

Javier Gomez
On Eilat being his first big race of the season in this Olympic year:
“This is a special year because of the Olympic Games, but I have no specific goals just to have a good race and test my level at the moment. Of course when you are out there you want to win and try to give your best like everyone, but I don’t feel any pressure about that. Right now my main goal is to perform well in London.
I’m very excited to be in Israel, it’s my first time in this country and I heard a lot about this race in past years so I hope I can enjoy it and have a good one.”

Emmie Charayron
On hopes of defending her European Championship title:
“This will be my first race of the season so it’s difficult to start with a European Championships. It’s not the main goal of my season, but my winter was good, I worked hard and did a good job so I hope that I will do my best in Eilat.”

Joao Silva
On hopes for the Eilat European Championships:
“First of all I don’t have great expectations for the race, but I will try to do by best for the Portuguese team and get the maximum points here. I would like to say that I’m really happy to be here, this is my fourth time in Eilat. I won my first ETU triathlon race here some years ago so I’m really happy that Eilat can hold such a big race as the European Championships this year.”

Nicola Spirig
On her strong start to the 2012 season:
“Training has been going well and the first two races this year went well for me, so I have high expectations. I was two-time European champion and I couldn’t start last year because I was injured so of course I’m hoping for a good race and I will do everything to win my title back even though that will be really difficult.
I’m already qualified for the Olympics but European Championships has almost meant a lot to me and if I could get European Champion for the third time, that would be like a dream come true.”

Ron Darmon
On his hopes for the race and racing in front of a home crowd:
“This is my first year competing as an elite triathlete comes out of juniors so at the moment I’m just coming to experience and keep learning and trying to nail the 10k run is my main goal for the race. Obviously it’s a home crowd so I’m really happy that this is my first race as an elite and I’m just hoping to enjoy the crowd and environment and go hard.”

Fanny Beisaron
On her preparations for the event:
“I’ve been working really hard for the past couple of months. I am more of a natural swimmer so I have been working hard on the bike and run so I want to prove to myself that I can really go out hard this time.”