Kedzierzyn Kozle, Poland: Lenka Zemanova (Radova) from Czech Republic and Andrey Glouschenko from Ukraine won the outstanding competition in front of thousands of spectators!
Sunny, warm weather and 17C cold water welcomed the elite women at 11am. Since the temperature of the Odra River was less then 20C, the athletes were allowed to wear wetsuits. Abbie Thorrington was the fastest in the swim exited the water in the front. There were 5 other athletes on their heel, included Olga Dimitrieva (RUS), Christiane Pilz (GER), Jana Jirouskova (CZE) and Lenka Zemanova (CZE). The first Polish athlete, Maria Czesnik just missed the first group and started the bike with the second group. Both leaders and the big chasing group were working very hard on the bike to keep the chance for the run. Ewa Dederko (POL) and Lisa Hutthaller (AUT) came out of the water in the second part of the field, but with a great biking performance, they were able to reach the chasing group and finish the bike one minute behind the leaders. Zemanova took the lead in the early stage of the run immediately and she was able to keep the whole field behind till the end. With the best running time of the day, Dederko finished second and thanks to the great support of the local spectators Maria Czesnik came third.
Lenka Zemanova: I had a great race today. We were working very well together on the lead and I am satisfied with my performance. It was a good luck for me, that the run course was designed for 9,5km, because my Polish rivals had better run today.
Just after the women finished the race, there were exactly 75 men waiting for the start signal on the pontoon. More and more spectators came out to watch the race and since they were there, everybody was cheering the athletes no matter which country they came from. The British duo, Dann Brook and Andrew Fargus were the fastest in the swim, but the top 25 athletes were out of the water within 15 seconds. A group of 13 athletes formed during the early kilometers of the bike included most of the pre-race favorites. This group could maintain the lead over a huge chasing group with over 40 athletes in it. At the end of the bike the leaders had 1 minute and 10 seconds. In the first 2 kilometers of the run Andrey Glouschenko (UKR) and Christian Prochnow (GER) broke away from the rest of the field and they were about 15 seconds ahead. The other athletes were all together including Fargus, Martin Krnavek (CZE), Frederik van Lierde (BEL) and Jan Raphael (GER). After the second lap of the run it was only Glouschenko on the lead and Prochnow followed him within 10 seconds. The Ukrainian athlete could keep this lead till the end and won the second Premium European Cup of his season. Christian Prochnow came second and with a great running performance Jan Raphael finished in bronze medal position.
The Kedzierzyn Kozle ITU Premium European Cup finished with great success and with the support of the local municipality and the Polish Triathlon Federation hopefully it will be a solid stage of the European Cup series in the future.
Click here for official results .
For more information, please contact:
Gergely Markus, ETU Secretary General
Gergely.markus@triathlon.org; T: +36 30 688 2997