Africa Triathlon

(August 19, 2005 )

Triathlon European Championships – Lausanne, Switzerland

Fair weather, a beautiful center, a wonderful olympic museum: what a great first impression of the host city of the 2005 ETU Triathlon European Championships – Lausanne.

Lots of members of the European triathlon family arrived on the previous days to race at the elite and age-group events on the weekend, or to attend the ETU Congress which was held today. The elite athletes have already taken the opportunity to have a look and to get some training miles on the race-course, accompanied by a high number of age group athletes who will compete on Sunday. Meanwhile, the Olympic Museum hosted the ETU congress, where a new executive board and new commitees have been elected. All of them are looking forward to working for our sport’s development, and to act together in unity. An emotional ceremony has also taken place at the end: the family of our friend Michel Ginoux presented the legendary finish tape of the Sydney triathlon event to the museum, which will show it as part of its exhibition further on – both in memory of the first olympic triathlon and our friend Michel.

The elite races tomorrow promise a real tough and thrilling competition. Water temperature in Lake Geneva is just over 20°C, so the athletes will probably head out for the 2 swim laps without their wetsuits. After the first leg, a tough bike course is waiting for our athletes: 7 laps and 2 hard uphill sections (up to 13%!) per lap… We might see some attacks from the strong bikeriders in the field (just like local favourites Sven Riederer, Olivier Marceau and Reto Hug, defending champion Rasmus Henning and french sensation Fred Belaubre) who would like to take advantage of their excellent biking skills in order to get away from the strong runners – but when it comes to a running race, Filip Ospaly and Tim Don will be hard to beat on the flat profiled running course.

The women’s race promises some great action as well: defending champ Vanessa Fernandes had some impressive victories this year, but Salford winner Liz Blatchford, Sydney bronze medalist Magali Di Marco Messmer and the young Italian, Nadia Cortassa will definately do their best to get to the very top of the podium as well tomorrow.

So watch out folks: a great event is gonna take place tomorrow, which you can join at www. etu-triathlon.org and www.triathlon.org Look for the post race story and picture gallery on the website just after the race!!!