NATURLANDIA, Andorra - The decision
of skipping the Winter Duathlon World Championships to focus on Triathlon
instead proved to be the right one for the athlete representing the Russian
Triathlon Federation Daria Rogizina, that stormed the field in Andorra to claim
her second Winter Triathlon world title. Italian Sandra Mairhofer crossed the
finish line in second to open the scoreboard for the Italian team, while
Norway’s Elizabeth Sveum grabbed the bronze medal.
The frigid temperatures in Andorra
forced the officials to make some adjustments in the bike course after the
familiarization the day before the race, to avoid some downhills with ice
patches, but the course was still hard enough: a 3-lap snow run before
transitioning to a hilly and technical mountain bike course of two laps 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.
With the temperatures only slightly
above zero degrees, 14 women lined up for the start of the Elite and U23 2022
Andorra World Triathlon Winter Triathlon Championships. And the two times world
champion Daria Rogozina showed from the start that she will be the one to beat.
In the first lap of the run, she managed to break away from the rest of the
field, and she never looked back, doing solo the whole race. She had most of
the the fastest splits of the day, and dominated the race from the beginning to
the end.
So for the rest of the field, it was
the battle for the silver and bronze what kept the race alive, with the 2021
world champion Mairhofer playing the cat and mouse game with Svetlana Surikova
(RTF) and Svetlana Sokolova (RTF), both of them staying quite close behind and
avoiding penalties.
It was in the second leg when
Mairhofer started to show her cards and pushed really hard on the bike, knowing
that the lead was almost impossible to catch, but breaking away from the
russian athletes. And coming from behind, it was a matter of the first few
meters of the bike that Norwegian Sveum proved that she is one of the strongest
athletes on the bike and ski combination. A flat tyre for Sokolova right after
leaving transition for the fourth time ended with her medal hopes, and Sveum
continued the chase with only one thing in mind: the podium that slipped
through her fingers last year, when she crossed the finish line in third place
but was then disqualified for not serving a penalty.
The last leg of the ski was just a
magnificent display of Rogozina, in full form in Andorra after two weeks in the
bautiful resort of Naturlandia getting used to the altitude, and fully
recovered from giving birth to her first son. She crossed the finish line to
claim her third world crown, with a difference of over four minutes with
Maihofer, who finished in the second place.
“I am really happy to be back in the
podium here”, said Rogozina. “After winning the Russian winter triathlon
championship I came here for training and it did pay off. I decided to skip the
duathlon to save energies for today, and I think it was the right decision.
Today’¡s race was really hard, I don’t know if I could have done it it I would
have raced two days ago”, she said.
Maihofer also decided to skip the
duathlon, which allowed her to go full gas at the end of the race. “The venue
was beautiful but it was hard. Even though I am really used to long distances
and I loved this format with so many transitions. For me it was an ideal race,
and I am very happy to come back home with a silver medal”, she explained.
Redemption day was for Sveum, who
finally got an individual medal in the Winter triathlon world championships. “I
am a really strong biker and skier but not so much a good runner, that’s why I
skipped the duathlon and focused my training on this event, and it was great to
be able to finish in the podium”, she said.
Behind her, two athletes representing
the Russian Federation, Yulia Surikova and Valeria Kuznetsova, who was also
crowned the U23 world champion, while the second norwegian girl, Julie
Meinicke, adding this medal to the U23 Winter Duathlon world title she won only
two days ago. The bronze medal in the U23 category was for Olga Cheremisinova
(RTF).
In the Junior race, disputed over a
sprint distance but the same format of repeating two times each leg, the gold
medal was for another Norwegian, Vittoria Nitteberg, who also claimed the
victory in the Duathlon World Championships, followed at the finish line by
Kseniia Skvortsova (RTF) and Katja Krenn (AUT).
Results: Elite Women
1. Daria
Rogozina RTF 02:03:59
2. Sandra
Mairhofer ITA 02:07:16
3. Elisabeth
Sveum NOR 02:07:42
4. Yulia
Surikova RTF
02:12:04
5. Valeria
Kuznetsova RTF 02:14:29
Results: U23 Women
1. Valeria
Kuznetsova RTF 02:14:29
2. Julie
Meinicke NOR
02:17:09
3. Olga
Cheremisinova RTF 02:19:18
DNF. Besaide
Astobiza SanchezESP dnf
Results: Junior Women
1. Victoria
Nitteberg NOR 01:16:43
2. Kseniia
Skvortsova RTF 01:20:20
3. Katja
Krenn AUT 01:21:13
4. Irene
Moro Betrian ESP 01:25:17
5. Ainhoa
Oyarbide Luis ESP 01:28:49
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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