This race will be not only a great gathering of post-Edmonton triathletes making their way home but also the Grand Final of the Romanian Triathlon Series.  Tucked away on the Black Sea coast, this is the oldest still-populated city in Romania. It was founded around 600 BC but buzzing with anticipation as the elite athletes arrive to boost the Age Group numbers and make it a super tri weekend.

Racing over the standard 1500m, 40k, 10k distance the LOC have put up €12,500 as prize-money, split between the men and women Elite athletes. With the two-lap swim completed the athletes have a long run of 400m to T1 before they set off on the dead flat 7-lap bike course. This will give spectators a great view of what we expect will be powerful riding from the Russian and Ukrainian teams with a strong likelihood of Portuguese and Swiss athletes getting into the pack to make it a blistering run for the line on the 4-lap run.

Fresh, well, as fresh as you can be with a WTS weekend and a few thousand miles of jet-lag, we will see from Russia and leading the ETU Rankings, Dmitry Polyanskiy. With him will be the Bryukhankov brothers. The fast-paced Ivan Tutukin will shake up the run, as will the Ukrainian athletes, Ivan Ivanov and the two Sergiys, Kokhan and Kurochkin. These athletes will be joined by Kyiv winner Pedro Palma from Portugal and Patrick Rhyner from Switzerland who will be riding high after his victory in Riga. Teams from 25 nations will battle for the podium.

Amongst the women, 15 nations will be on the start line. Strong swimmer, Angelina Borodina (BLR) will take a lead with the swim with help from Kseniia Levkovska (AZE), Israel’s Fanny Beisaron and Ukraine’s Inna Ryzhykh. If they work well together this could open the race up well. The bike will be hard work for the weaker cyclists as they watch the inevitable progress of the stronger athletes. Yulia Yelistratova (UKR), if she has recovered well from Edmonton, will always pose a threat on the run but as for the men, the rigours of jetlag after such a weekend in Canada will tell.