The ETU Winter Triathlon European Championships in Lygna, Norway were a resounding success.

In the elite womens race the irrepressible Marthe K. Myhre of Norway won the ETU Winter Triathlon European Championships.  She delighted the home supporters by leading a gold-silver sweep for the home team.  Myhre won with a time of 1 hour, 20 minutes and 56 seconds, almost a full 2 minutes ahead of her closest competitor, team mate Hanne Tronnes. Although Emma Garrard from USA finished third the ETU bronze medal goes to Yulia Surikova of Russia as the third European across the line. The Under23 women’s race was also contested at the same time as the elite women and it was an absolutely dominating performance by Norwegian Tuva Toftdahl.

Swedish Andreas Svanebo won the elite men’s ETU Winter Triathlon European Championship for the third time in his career, after his victory in 2007 and 2008. As it was in the women’s race for Myhre, Svanebo lead from start to finish for the win. Norwegian Arne Post, last year’s gold medalist easily won the silver but competition was a lot closer for the final step on the podium.  Four men finished under 20 seconds with Italian Daniel Antonioli bursting through for bronze. In the Under23 men’s race, Dmitriy Bregeda from Russia won gold in a commanding performance.

In the junior events the Norwegian teenagers Tone Dalen and Martin Nyenget won their respective races.

On the second day of the championships the team relay competitions were held where Russia secured the European title in the men and the Norwegian team for the women. The program was finished by the Age-Group competitions with several great performances in ideal weather and snow conditions.

The Elite race distances were a 7.5-km run, 10-km mountain bike and a 10-km cross-country ski.

This weekends events are a great build up for the ITU Winter Triathlon World Championships which take place next weekend a short drive away in Eidsvoll, Norway.
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