The stage is set in Andorra to
welcome the participants of the 2021 World Triathlon Winter Championships.
Andorra’s Naturlandia adventure park, near the town of Sant Julià de Lòria,
will be the perfect home for more than 200 athletes from all over the world. A
breathtaking natural setting, nestled within the mighty Pyrenees, will be the
arena where athletes will combine the disciplines of running, mountain biking
and cross-country skiing across a sprawling winter landscape.
Winter triathlon is one of the newest
events on World Triathlon’s calendar, consists of a run, mountain bike and
cross-country skiing format with elite athletes going usually for approximately
8 km run on the snow, 14 km of MTB also on the snow and 12 km of cross-country
skiing. The World Triathlon Winter Championships usually is a two-day event
with hundreds of athletes for the elite, junior, u23, paratriathlon and
age-group programs. There will also be a mixed relay event for both the elites
and juniors.
Andorra will be the 23th edition of
the World Triathlon Winter Championships, an event that was first held in Mals,
Italy, in 1997, and has since gained attraction every, with thousands of
athletes participating in the sport.
Men’s race Preview
On the men’s side, a 26-man roster is
ready to compete in Andorra, including the man that can be considered the King
of Winter Triathlon: Pavel Andreev. The neutral athlete representing the
Russian Triathlon Federation will try to secure his 9th World crown this
weekend, after another excellent performance only a few weeks ago in the Asiago
World Cup that got him another gold medal for his tally.
Andreev’s teammate and 2019 silver
medallist and 2020 bronze medallist,
Dmitriy Bregeda will be trying to overcome the bittersweet fourth place
he got in Asiago, but he will need to keep an eye on other members of the team
from the Russian Federation, including Pavel Yakimov and Evgenii Uliashev, both
strong skiers that can take advantage of the long and tough ski course in
Andorra. Evgenii Evgrafov and Ivan Zalavtsev (RTF) will play their cards in the
U23 category.
Facing the athletes representing the
Russian Federation, the Italian squad, led by Guiseppe Lamastra, who will be
accompanied by Daniel Antonioli and Franco Pesavento, will be once again trying
to claim spots in the top positions.
Another one to watch will be newcomer
Sebastian Neef (GER), who proved to be a really strong biker and skier in
Asiago last month, claiming the silver medal ahead of some of the world stars
of the winter sport. For Eneko Llanos Burguera (ESP), racing in Andorra will be
almost like racing at home, and he has proved in the Spanish Championships that
moving from long distance triathlon to winter tri events has been a successful
move.
Viorel Palici (ROM), Marek Rauchfuss
(CZE) and Oivind Bjerkseth (NOR), among some other names, will be among the
ones vying for the top positions in the race, that will take place on Saturday
morning and will be streamed live on TriathlonLIVE.tv.
Women’s Preview
In the Elite women’s race, the battle
will be fierce among the top neutral athletes from the Russian federation,
Yulia Surikova, Daria Rogozina and Svetlana Sokolova, and the woman that
claimed for the first non-Russian athlete standing on top of a winter triathlon
podium in decades: Italian Sandra Meirhofer.
Daria Rogozina, the current holder of
the World and European crowns, did not race in Asiago but is ready now to
defend her title of the Queen of snow. In front of her, Mairhofer, gunning for
her first ever World Championships title.
Lining up with them will be some
great names of Winter and Cross Triathlon. Austrian Romana Slavinec, silver
medal in Asiago and who will be looking forward to who will be looking to
improve on her bronze medal in the World Championships 2019 after collecting
eight National titles and the World title as an U23 in 2012.
Enara Oronoz Mateo and Marta Borbon
Llorente (ESP) will benefit from competing considerably near home, and can show
their strong bike skills.
WORLD TRIATHLON
World Triathlon is the international
governing body for the Olympic sport of triathlon and all related multisport
disciplines around the world, including duathlon, aquathlon, cross triathlon
and winter triathlon. Triathlon made its Olympic debut in Sydney 2000, with a
third medal event, the Mixed Team Relay, added to the programme at Tokyo 2020,
while paratriathlon was first added to the Paralympic programme at Rio 2016.
World Triathlon is proudly committed to the development of the sport worldwide,
with inclusion, equality, sustainability and transparency at our core as we
seek to help triathletes at all levels of the sport to be extraordinary.
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