On a crystal clear day the City of Sater Sweden was once again host to a major long distance triathlon event; the ETU Long Distance Triathlon Championships.
Go to the Sater event page for full results.
At 8.00 the cream of European athletes took to the water with the elite men setting off first followed by the elite women and then the Age Group athletes for the 4km Swim, 120k bike and 30km elite.
In the men’s elite, the field soon split up into a group of six athletes who finished the first 2k lap in 24mins 20secs and were followed by another larger pack of 9 athletes some 40 seconds later. These first two packs held the eventual podium winners.
First out in the swim was Tomas Bednar (CZE) in 51mins and 58 seconds followed closely by Stephen Baylis (GBR) and Duncan Mckerracher (GBR) just seconds later.
After the first lap of the five lap bike course there were five athletes in close contention followed by another pack of four athletes some 30 seconds later. The home nation athlete Jonas Colting (SWE) used his power on the bike to open up a convincing lead of 2mins by the time they came back into transition.
Second out of transition and onto the run was Stephen Bayliss but eventual winner Gerrit Schellens showed his intentions by quickly overtaking 5 or 6 athletes to exit strongly in 5th place.
After lap1 Bayliss had reeled in Colting. Schellens was working his way up the field and overtook Colting and eventually Bayliss. Jimmy Johansen (DEN) also overtook Bayliss in the final lap but Bayliss held on comfortably to third place.
Gerrit Schellens, Belgium, was able to claim the title of European Champion with in a time of 5hrs 48 mins followed 2 minutes 28 seconds later by Jimmy Johansen from Denmark. Stephen Bayliss Great Britain crossed the finish line 1 min 40 seconds after Johansen.
Meanwhile in the Women’s elite race the swim was headed out by Eva Novakova (CZE) who after lap 1 had a lead of 1 minute and extended this to be out into T1 with a 2 minute advantage. She came out of the swim in a time of 55mins 14 seconds
She was followed by first a group of four and then another group of 6 athletes all in close contention.
The women’s swim time was almost as fast as the men’s!
However after lap 1 of the bike Abigail Bayley was in the lead followed closely by Rachel Horn both from (GBR) with Tove Wiklund (SWE) in third.
Horn came into transition 20 seconds ahead of Bayley followed by Tove Wiklund 1 ½ minutes later. Sara Gross was then in 4th place.
In the second lap of the run Gross had made it to the front whilst Comerford moved up from 6th to 2nd place. Gross was however running strongly and Commerford was unable to close the gap. Meanwhile Natalia Barkun (BLR) moved into third place.
The athletes stayed in this order until the finish and so Sara Gross (GBR) became the European Champion with Bella Comerford (GBR) in the silver medal position and Natalia Barkrun (BLR) in bronze.