Naturlandia, the stunning natural
park in Andorra, was the perfect host for the 2021 World Triathlon Winter
Championship, with Norway showing an incredible performance as a team to grab
three of the six gold medals on dispute this Saturday. Hans Christian Tungensvik
(NOR) showed an incredible performance on skis to outrun Pavel Andreev (RTF),
winner of the previous 8 world titles.
The 26 athletes vying for the world
title lined up early morning with freezing temperatures (-7ºC) but the sun
shining in the sky.
Italian Franco Pesavento decided to
show his cards from the very beginning, going so strong on the run that
literally no one was able to follow him. He managed to open a gap of almost 20
seconds in the first lap of the run, while Victor del Corral (ESP), Daniel
Antonioli (ITA) and Eneko Llanos (ESP) were the only ones able to follow the
frantic rhythm of the Italian.
Half way through the run -a 6,55km
run done in four laps on a quite technical and hilly circuit-, the 8th times
world champion, Pavel Andreev was easily running one minute behind the leaders,
while Pesavento was flying, eager to get to the first transition, where he made
it with over 30 seconds from the chasing trio. By then, the difference with the
current World Champion was 1 minute 20 seconds.
The first km on the bike proved to be
quite challenging for the triathletes, with a fast descent with some ice and
turns that ended up showing which triathletes are more used to driving in the
snow. Llanos, Xavier Jove (AND) and the athletes representing the Russian
Triathlon Federation were the ones who took advantage of their cross triathlon
and long distance experience. Behind the leaders, Pavel was gaining spots one
by one, making sure that he will arrive at the second transition in a good
position, close to the leaders, to show his skiing skills.
Also showing impressive skills on the
bike were Guiseppe Lamastra (ITA) and Marek Rauchfuss (CZE), who had the
fastest splits on the bike segment.
For the final segment over the skis,
it only took one lap for Andrev to get to the first place, but what seemed to
business as usual for him, turned out to be a magnificent display of power and
skiing abilities from an outsider: Hans Christian Tungensvik, from Norway.
Competing on his first international
winter triathlon, he positioned himself in second place on the first lap of the
ski, to then pass Andrev with two laps to go and cross the finish line
comfortably all by himself to grab the Winter Triathlon world title.
“I am incredibly happy”, said the
Norwegian, a long distance athlete with a 8h40mins time on a few Ironman
distance events that had never tried before winter triathlon until a month ago,
when he claimed the National title and was selected to compete in Andorra. “I
did not expect this. It is my first race of this level, so I knew I was in
great shape, but had no idea of how the others were and how I will be compared
with them. I love skiing, and this circuit was amazing. I would love to race
more winter tri races for sure”, he said. Little did he imagine that he was
going to be the first Norwegian medal today, but definitely not the last one.
“I should have grabbed an Andorra cap before crossing the finish line to see if
I can be sponsored by the Andorran government”, he said laughing, referencing his
teammate Gustav Iden, who was sponsored by Taiwan after wearing a cap with
their brand when winning the Ironman 70.3 World Championships.
The silver medal was for Andreev,
while Lamastra claimed the last spot on the podium, to much delight of the
Italian team. His teammate Pasavento finished in the fourth place, while the
5th position was for Rauchfuss.
In the U23 Male’s race, it was the
young Italian Mattia Tanara who claimed the World title, after an impressive
run that positioned himself in the first place of his category with almost two
minutes’ difference with the chasers. His great skiing performance granted him
the first place overall, followed on the finish line by Evgenii Evgrafov and
Ivan Zalavtsev, both neutral athletes representing the Russian Triathlon
Federation.
The Juniors had a shorter course,
going for a 3,35km run, 4,8 bike and 4,55 ski course, that ended up with the
Norwegian team showing that they have a serious commitment with Winter
Triathlon and are investing not only on the elite category, but also on the
youngsters. With only 16 years of age and with impressive skiing skiils, Sivert
Ekroll (NOR) dominated the junior race
from the beginning til the end, to cross the finish line all smiles stopping
the clock on 37’17’’, to see his teammate Casper Ronning claim the silver
medal. The third spot of the podium was for young Russian Yaroslav Kurilenok.
ReWatch the races on TriathlonLIVE!
ABOUT 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.
www.triathlon.org
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