SA 7th in ITU World Champs

 

 

Team South Africa, represented by Kate Roberts, Mari Rabi and Corinne Berg have placed a credible seventh at the ITU Elite Team Triathlon World Championships in Hungary over the weekend. 

 

For South Africa, the swim component of the event was the strongest link, with a fifth-place finish to boost the seventh overall position, but the 1m33s gap between the team and event winners Russia illustrates how close the margins are at this competitive level.

 

The fast and furious team relay event consists of three members each completing a “super sprint triathlon” that includes a 250-meter swim, 6.9-kilometer draft-legal bike and 1.6-kilometer run before handing off to their next team mate.

 

In the women’s event, the Russian trio pulled ahead during the second leg of the quick format swim-bike-run relay, finishing in a time of 1 hour 5 minutes and 5 seconds.

 

The next nation across the line was neighbouring Ukraine, 16 seconds back to take silver. Reigning champions Italy was a further 4 seconds down for the bronze, making the Italian women the only team to medal in all three team world championships.

 

Italy was quick to jump to the front over the opening leg but could not hold off the fast approaching Russian and Ukrainian teams.

 

Russia’s second, Elena Matveeva, ran through the field with the quickest run-split of the day to give a sizeable lead for their anchor athlete, Anastasia Yatsenko, to hold off the rest for the budding triathlon nation’s second ever world championships gold.

 

Previously Yatsenko had competed for the Ukraine but this year began representing Russia and proved to be the difference for her new country.

 

2007 Tiszaujvaros ITU Elite Team Triathlon World Championships – Final Women’s Results:
1. Russia (Irina Abysova, Elena Matveeva, Anastasia Yatsenko) 1:05:05
2. Ukraine (Inna Tsyganok, Yuliya Yelistratova, Olesya Prystayko) 1:05:21 (+:16)
3. Italy (Daniela Chmet, Charlotte Bonin, Nadia Cortassa) 1:05:25 (+:20)
4. Hungary (Margit Vanek, Zsofia Toth, Renata Koch) 1:05:35 (+:30)
5. Czech Republic (Jana Jiriuskova, Lucie Zelenkova, Lenka Zemanova) 1:05:41 (+:36)
6. Poland (Maria Csesnik, Monika Smaruj, Ewa Dederko) 1:06:19 (+1:14)
7. South Africa (Kate Roberts, Mari Rabi, Corinne Berg) 1:06:38 (+1:33)
8. Spain (Ana Burgos, Maria Pujol, Zurine Rodriguez) 1:06:54 (+1:49)