Next weekend is the biggest annual meeting of athletes for ETU. All eyes will be on Lisbon for the 2016 Médis Lisbon ETU Triathlon European Championships. All eyes, certainly but one significant group of athletes will be absent.

The U23 category will have their own stand-alone Championships in Burgas, Bulgaria on the warm Black Sea beach resort over the weekend of 18th and 19th June.

If we turn the clock way back … 2005 in fact we can see that Bulgaria hosted the event back then. Who won?

Well, it was Portuguese athlete Vanessa Fernandes. What a coincidence as the focus moves to Lisbon next weekend. Who was there with her? Silver went to Nicola Spirig and bronze to Helen Tucker who we now all know as Helen Jenkins. Impressive list of athletes so far and that is only the top three. Vendula Frintová, Lisa Nordén, Radka Vodičková, Inna Ryzhykh and Yevgeniya Sukhoruchenkova are still racing or involved on the ITU / ETU circuit.

The men’s race was won by Ruedi Wild. Silver went to Valentin Meshcheryakov and bronze to Иван Васильев - Ivan Vasiliev RUS. Looking down the result list, it reads also like a “Who’s who” of triathlon with Will Clarke GBR, Alberto Casadei ITA, Steffen Justus GER, Jan Čelůstka CZE, Daniel Hofer ITA, Ciprian Balanescu ROU, Ákos Vanek HUN, Vladimir Turbaevskiy RUS and from France, both David Hauss and the greatly missed Laurent Vidal.

The race was hosted by the city and with a motorcycle escort the athletes, wearing national colours, rode from the city centre hotel to the race venue along streets lined with spectators who stood and applauded the athletes. The race came after a big storm that made some parts of the challenging course quite slippery but although crashes and injuries occurred, everyone made it to the post-race dinner and then the quite memorable trip into downtown Sofia, led by the Technical Delegate’s daughter. 32 U23 athletes on a tram rattling down to the city centre in party mode must have been a great sight. For a trip down memory lane have a look at the small gallery.

Looking back is always fun but looking forwards is exciting. As around the world the National Federations are making their final decisions on just who will get the Rio ticket we cannot ignore that amongst our own ETU U23 athletes there is massive potential. Among our own U23 athletes we have strength and depth that will certainly drive the sport forwards in the next few years as participation in our sport grows and as these young athletes become role models for younger athletes coming through the Youth and Junior ranks.

ETU is currently running a development camp in Portugal as a feed into the Championships. A great strategic plan and proof that ETU is dedicated to funding and supporting the growth of our sport from the Youth and Juniors upwards.

There is still time for National Federations to sign up their athletes to the Burgas event. Getting there is easy with any number of chartered flights heading to the seaside resorts. Alternatively but more of a challenge, there are cheap flights to the capital and then overnight trains to take you to the coast. Use this option if you have time and want a great experience of the country. There is also an ETU Triathlon Junior European Cup scheduled for the same weekend and with places still available there are valuable points to be won.

The U23 athletes will be racing for medals as well as points and with extra prize-money, this is potentially a big pay-day for all.

Still time to enter your athletes for the U23 Championships or for the ETU Triathlon Junior European Cup!