Posted: June 25, 2006

Triathlon: Defended elite titles in Autun!

Vanessa Fernandes of Portugal wins in Autun - Photo: spomedis/triathlon.org: Frank Wechsel

European triathlon stars Vanessa Fernandes from Portugal and the French rocket Frederic Belaubre both defended their titles.

On the second day of the Triathlon European Championships the elite athletes were head to head for the European titles. Top athletes made their way to Autun from Europe and this lifted the race to the level of a World Cup.

48 women athletes lined up on the pontoon for the start. During the swim section Jessica Harrison from France and the Czech Eva Novakova were on the lead. The pre-race favourite Vanessa Fernandes closely followed them. After the first transition Fernandes moved to the lead and made the first two laps alone, followed by a chase group included Harrison and her team mate Virgine Jouve, the Swiss Magali Di Marco Messmer, Elizabeth May from Luxembourg and Ainhoa Murua from Spain. The chase group was working hard enough to catch Fernandes and the group was loosing time on the second chase group. In the second half of the bike these two groups joined together and they were ready for a taught run. Fernandes moved onto the lead immediately and nobody could go with her. The real battle was for second place among Anja Dittmer, Andrea Whitcombe, Nadia Cortassa and Tania Haiboeck. Fernandes had an impressive race again, won the European title 3 times in a row and remained unbeatable in 2006. With a strong fourth lap, Dittmer claimed the silver medal and Cortassa came in third position.

As soon as the transition area was clean from the women’s bike, the men were ready. The same course was waiting for them. After the start there was three athletes broke the start and jumped into the water before the horn, they were stopped for valuable seconds by the Technical Officials during the first transition. Home favourite, Stephan Populate came out of the water first, with the whole field on his feet. A long line of athletes exited the transition and pushed the pace very had for the first few laps. By this time there was a big group on the lead. In every lap, there were different athletes all the time trying to breakaway, included Andrea D’Aquinio and Alessandro De Gasperi, both from Italy. They had over half a minute lead as the most, but Aquinio decided to drop back to the chase group, when he realised, that they would not make it at this time. Bike specialists Olivier Marceau and Peter Croes were also on an attack during the bike. De Gasperi got back to the second transition first, but a few seconds behind her Cedric Fleureton came and then the whole group of forty athletes. Fleureton moved to the front very soon, but Ivan Rana and Frederic Belaubre were also very fast on the early stage of the run. After the end of the first lap, Belaubre took the lead and none of the other athletes could keep his speed. Belaubre maintained his led meter by meter over Fleureton and Andrew Johns, martin Krnavek and Javier Gomez were head to head on the third position. The first and second place remained for Belaubre and Fleureton till the end of the race and Johns dropped first Gomez and some hundreds meter before the finish Krnavek as well and got the bronze medal.

Results:
Women:
1. Vanessa Fernandes (POR) 2:10:41
2. Anja Dittmer (GER) 2:11:48
3. Nadia Cortassa (ITA) 2:11:54
4. Andrea Whitcombe (GBR) 2:12:20
5. Tania Haiboeck (AUT) 2:12:31
6. Marion Lorblanchet (FRA) 2:12:59
7. Virginie Jouve (FRA) 2:13:17
8. Kathrin Mueller (GER) 2:13:31
9. Marina Damlaimcourt 2:13:39
10. Merja Kiviranta (FIN) 2:13:46

Men:
1. Frederic Belaubre (FRA) 1:56:44
2. Cedric Fleureton (FRA) 1:57:11
3. Andrew Johns (GBR) 1:57:29
4. Martin Krnavek (CZE) 1:57:42
5. Javier Gomez (ESP) 1:58:01
6. Bruno Pais (POR) 1:58:08
7. Tim Don (GBR) 1:58:15
8. Franz Hofer (AUT) 1:58:18
9. Stephan Poulat (FRA) 1:58:27
10. Igor Sysoev (RUS) 1:58:50

Complete results and photos are available from Triathlon.org.

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