Sebastian Kienle from Germany took home the main win of the professional part of The Championship 2019. The champion title in the women’s part of the race went to the British athlete Lucy Charles-Barclay, who’s won the Samorin race for the third time this year.
The hot summer weather has kicked off the last day of this year’s world championship in middle distance triathlon in the x bionic sphere in Samorin in Slovakia. The stable water levels of the Danube have allowed racers from 60 countries start the championship in the wild river that they have been looking forward to. Hundreds of volunteers and visitors from every corner of the world completed a great atmosphere of the event, cheering on the athletes from the first minute up until the finish line.
The crowd focused mostly on the Slovak racers and the star triathletes who have succeeded here in the previous years. German Sebastian Kienle has finished his swim in the Danube in the 5th place, but he’s gradually taken a lead in the following disciplines. After a dramatic run, Kienle reached the finish run first and took home his first win in Samorin after the last year’s silver position with a record time 3:38:49.
„Everybody has fought at their limits today,“ said Sebastian. „During the run I said to myself, I still have some energy left and I’m not going to need it later today, so I completely emptied the tank,“ said the triathlete who has beat several of the competing racers before the finish line.
Fantastic Lucy Charles-Barclay from Great Britain has seen a great success and has managed to get a head start right from the beginning. She has run through the finish line at 4:00:25, before the Czech athlete Radka Kahlefeldt Vodičkova, who finished at 4:05:37. „The water was really cold today and the current was pretty strong too, but overall my swim was pretty good and I was happy,“ said Lucy after her third big win at the Samorin track. And although she fell of her bike at one point, she managed to keep her spirits up throughout the race up right until the amazing finish.
Local fans offered a lot of support to Filip Sebo, who enjoyed the race at his home turf on Sunday. Laszlo Tarnai from Hungary also complimented the atmosphere and support from the fans and ran to the finish at 4:19:25.
„This is my first time here. Last year I didn’t qualify, so we tasked ourselves, why not use the opportunity, and it has been a great experience,“ said Tarnai after the race. „It’s very nice here, not just the track, but also the spectators. There’s a lot of Hungarians here and they were supporting me and that gave me a really big push,“ he added.
We have also seen a fantastic race in the sunny weather and the cold 14°C water by Belgian Pieter Heemeryck who finished second with 3:39:21 and a US athlete Rudolphe von Berg who got the third best time with 4:07:17.
Spectators were also impressed by a wonderful power of two paratriathletes Rudy Garcia Tolson and Andy Lewis who raced alongside other athletes on Sunday and brought out a huge determination and inspiration for all of the visitors and athletes at the championship.
