NATURLANDIA, Andorra - It was a
magnificent day in Andorra for the Italian team, with Franco Pesavento adding
another gold medal to his tallly and claiming the Winter Triathlon world title,
while Mattia Tanara finished in the first place of the U23 category, and
Guglielmo Giuliano crossed the finish line in second place in the Junior race.
The 2022 Andorra World Triathlon Winter Championships elite podium was
completed with Marek Rauchfuss (CZE), who finished in second place, while the
athlete representing the Russian Federation Evgenii Uliashev took the bronze
medal.
26 men toed the start line on a
beautiful and cold morning in Naturlandia, the mountain resort that hosts for
the second consecutive year the Winter Triathlon Festival, to vye for the world
title in the Elite and U23 categories, with a new format of a 3-lap snow run
before transitioning to a hilly and technical mountain bike course and onto the
two-lap ski, to then repeat it all again before crossing the finish line. In
total, 8,2km run; 13,2 km bike and 12,4km ski.
And it was Krilan Le Bihan (FRA) who
set the pace for the first kilometers of the run, followed only by the young
rising star of winter triathlon, Franco Pesavento (ITA) and Felix Duchampt
(ROU), making his first attempt to the winter version of triathlon. Behind
them, the field started to strecht while 7 times world champion Pavel Andreev
kept an eye on the leaders, not allowing the distance to grow more than 30
seconds.
By the time the athletes jumped on
their bikes for the first time, Pesavento was leading the small group, quickly
leaving behind Le Bihan and Duchampt, struggling with the technical downhills
in the mud and snow, and with Andreev and Marek Rauchfuss quickly closing the
gap. Other great bikers like Guiseppe Lamastra (ITA), Sebastian Neef (GER) and
Alessandro Saravalle (ITA) were able to put themselves on a comfortable
position to fight for the podium spots, but as soon as the athletes were on
their skis it was the Russian who showed his skills to almost catch Pesavento,
still on the lead even though he had to ser a penalty of 15 seconds for
mounting on his bike before the line.
Pesavento, winner also of the Winter
Duathlon World Championships two days ago, knew that he would be hard to beat
on the run and went full gas on the second leg on his running shoes, opening
again a significant break with Andreev, while Lamastra, Viorel Palici (ROU) and
Mikhail Antipin (RTF) where behind them fighting for the podium places. But the
most dangerous threat to them would come from behind showing incredible skills
on the bike.
Marek Rauchfuss (CZE) only needed the
two laps on the bike to quickly pass one athlete after the other, including the
leader, Pesavento, a few meters before heading to the last transition of the
day. With the two of them playing cat and mouse for the first of the two laps
of the ski, it looked like it will be a close finish and so it was. The young
Italian managed to find the final extra gear in the last ramp on the skis to
cross the finish line triumphant to claim his first Winter Triathlon world
title just two years after being crowned U23 world champion on his hometown,
Asiago.
“It was really, really hard”, he said
after finishing the race. “I did enjoy the format a lot, but the altitude here
really has an impact, and also I was very tired after the race two days ago, so
I didn’t know if I would be able to do it. Marek caught me on the bike and then
I thought I would not be able to win on the skis, but I managed to do it at the
end”, he explained.
For Rauchfuss this is the second
silver medal in the Winter Triathlon world championships, after crossing the
finish line in second place in 2019 and in third in 2019, both times in Asiago.
“I am very happy but also dissappointed that I couldnt find the strength to beat
Franco at the end, today the race was really hard, congratulations to all”, he
said.
The drama of the day came with the
fight for the bronze medal. Andreev had to stop at the penalty box right before
the finish line to serve a penalty and it was right there where he saw his
teammate Evgenii Uliashev (RTF) pass him to cross the finish line in third
place. Andreev was disqualified after the race by the competition jury for
leaving the penalty box before he served the 15 seconds, and the fourth place
was for Germany’s Sebastian Neef.
On the U23 race, another Italian led
the race from the begining, with Mattia Tanara (ITA) doubling up to leave
Andorra with two golden metals hanging on his neck: the U23 Winter Duathlon
world champion and the U23 Winter Triathlon world champion. He was followed on
the finish line by Danila Egorov (RTF) while Frenchman Marin Gautier closed the
podium.
Norway claimed for the second
consecutive year the Junior world title, this time with Henrik Farstadvoll the
first one to cross the finish line of the sprint distance race. Second was
another Azzurri, Guglielmo Giuliano while Alvaro Lopez Lucia gave Spain the
only medal of the day.
Results: Elite Men
1. Franco
PesaventoITAITA 01:48:10
2. Marek
Rauchfuss CZECZE 01:48:24
3. Evgenii
UliashevRTFRTF 01:50:49
4. Sebastian
Neef GERGER 01:51:47
5. Pavel
Yakimov RTFRTF 01:52:10
Results: U23 Men
1. Mattia
Tanara ITAITA 01:54:31
2. Danila
Egorov RTFRTF 01:57:12
3. Marin
Gautier FRAFRA 02:00:04
4. Ian
Pennekamp NEDNED 02:01:43
5. Adam
Holomoucky CZECZE 02:09:59
ABOUT WORLD TRIATHLON
World Triathlon is the international
governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic 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 para triathlon 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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