Oceania Triathlon

Myjava, located in the White Carpathian Mountains of Northwest Slovakia, played host to the ETU Cross Triathlon European Championships last weekend, with France’s Franky Batelier and Austria’s Carina Wasle taking top honours. Wet, wild and cold conditions made the 800-meter swim, 30-km mountain bike and 10-km trail run even more difficult for the off-road competitors.

Wasle entered the women’s contest as the pre-race favourite and did not dissapoint. The Austrian exited the water in third place, just a few seconds back of swim leader Brigitta Poor of Hungary. Onto the bike, Wasle pulled away, towing Maud Golsteyn of the Netherlands with her. The pair of leaders easily distanced themselves from the pack, opening up a gap of ten minutes on the competition throughout the muddy, 30-km mountain bike ride. Onto the run it was all about Wasle, who pulled away with the fastest run of the day to win in 2:53:09, 61 seconds ahead of Golsteyn. Judy Van Der Berg, also of the Netherlands, finished third, over 13 minutes behind Golsteyn.

In the men’s race, Batelier dominanted from start to finish, exiting the water alongside the leaders before pulling away on the bike and never looking back. The Frenchman, who also won the XTERRA Triathlon European Championship earlier this year, posted the best bike split of the day (1:35:24), en route to entering T2 witha massive lead on the competition. Batelier broke the finishing tape in 2:19:42, over four minutes ahead of runner-up Victor Manuel del Corral Morales of Spain, who posted the fastest run-split of the day (26:08). Slovakia’s Tomas Jurkovic rounded out the podium.

The first-ever ITU Cross Triathlon World Championship will take place on April 30 of next year in Extremadura, Spain. For more information on the inaugural event, click here