Aquathlon Champs kickstart 2015 Worlds in Chicago

GB’s Kerry Large and Melissa Reid took respective golds in the PT4 and PT5 Aquathlon Worlds earlier today, starting what Team GB hope to be a glut of medals across elite, para and age-group racing over the next three days. Reid, who was the defending aquathlon champ, will also be hoping to add another gold to her haul when she competes in the paratri event on Friday, but she faces tough competition in the form of teammate and reigning champ, Alison Patrick.

Medals were scarce for Team GB at elite level, however, where it was eastern Europe that dominated the elite and junior waves on the first day of competition at the 2015 World Aquathlon Champs. Taking the men’s elite title was swim supremo, Richard Varga. A now-four-time world champion at the 750m swim/5km run distance, Slovakia’s Varga beat Russia’s Igor Polyanskiy to the line by 7secs with a winning time of 25:42mins.

Philip Wolfe was the top-finishing Brit in eighth place with a time of 28:00mins, with Neil Eddy two places back in 10th in 28:44mins. Eddy’s position was five places lower than at last year’s champs, in Edmonton, where he also won his age group (25-29) over the standard-distance.

In the women’s race Russia took control of the top two podium places with Anastasia Abrosimova in first (29:07) and teammate Elena Danilova in second (29:57). 2015 European Aquathlon Champ, GB’s Hannah Kitchen, finished three places lower than in 2014 in sixth place, with a time of 30:58mins.

It was Croatia’s turn to shine in the junior events, taking gold and silver in both the men’s and women’s races. No Brits were taking part. For the U23s, top GB athlete was Matthew Fearn in fourth with 31:17mins.

At the time of press, the 135-strong GB aquathlon team had hauled an impressive five golds, four silver and seven bronze. For a full and up-to-date list of results head to: www.triathlon.org/results/event/2015_chicago_itu_aquathlon_world_championships

Liz Barrett 220 Deputy Editor

About

220 deputy editor Liz Barrett started work on the magazine in 2007 as staff writer. Since then, she’s reported live from almost every major triathlon across the globe, including the Ironman World Championships, 70.3 Worlds, six ITU Worlds, Challenge Roth, the 2014 and 2022 Commonwealths, the London and Paris Olympics and the Rio Paralympics, to name but a few. Name a pro and chances are she’ll have interviewed them, so, unsurprisingly, she’s our go-to pro-athlete expert on the team. When not covering races, you’ll find her whipping words into finely-crafted shape for both the magazine and website.