from Triathlon.org…
For the first time since 1999, the 24th edition of the ETU Triathlon European Championships head to Portugal to welcome Europe’s finest triathletes. With world class calibre fields comparable to most world cups, this Saturday’s event is one of the most coveted titles of the year. It will be the final ITU Continental Championship of 2008 and the men’s and women’s winner will earn their countries automatic spots at the Beijing Olympic Games. With such high stakes on the line, the best will be at the top of their games.
The home crowds will no doubt be vocal in its support of world champion Vanessa Fernandes, one of Portugal’s biggest sports stars who’s quickly becoming one of the greatest triathletes of all time. No woman has tasted European glory for the past four years as Fernandes won every year since 2004. In fact, every year she has taken the start line at an elite European championships, she has won gold. In 2003 Fernandes won the junior women’s title. This weekend she races for a record-breaking fifth consecutive European crown. Only the Netherlands’ Rob Barel has won four straight European titles from 1985 to 1988.
Olympic champion Kate Allen was runner-up to Fernandes last year in Copenhagen and with a wetsuit swim and a fast run course, Allen could challenge for a spot on the podium again this year. But after a horrific crash earlier this year in New Plymouth, New Zealand, Allen may not be entering in the condition she would have liked.
Others to watch include Lisa Norden of Sweden and Swiss Nicola Spirig. Norden, last year’s under23 world champion has enjoyed a breakthrough season with podiums in Mooloolaba and New Plymouth, both highly competitive world cups. Spirig was a bronze medalist at last year’s European championships and since then has renewed confidence after winning her first world cup title in December. Spirig’s Swiss teammate Magali Di marco, the 2000 Olympic bronze medalist, will also be one to watch after taking bronze this past weekend in Richards Bay. The German team looks to get back on the podium and counters with a strong duo of Christiane Pilz and Joelle Franzmann. Click here for full women’s startlist
On the men’s side, Spain’s Javier Gomez broke through for his first European title last year in Copenhagen. Gomez won last year’s BG Triathlon World Cup stop in Lisbon and is keen to repeat as European champion on his way to Beijing. But a stellar men’s field that includes several former champions stand in his way. Gomez doesn’t have to look past his own team for a worthy challenger with Ivan Rana, the only other Spanish man to win European championships in 2002 and 2003.
Frederic Belaubre of France, another two-time champion, will be eager to re-claim his title after coming back from injury pre-maturely last year to defend his crown in Copenhagen. His teammate Cedric Fleureton is also no stranger to European success as he was runner-up to Belaubre in 2005 and 2006.
Swiss Reto Hug, the 1999 European champion and Czech Filip Ospaly, champion from 2001, will also both be looking to get back on the podium this Saturday is Lisbon. Hug has performed well on the BG Triathlon World Cup series this year, posting a sixth place finish in Ishigaki and finishing fourth in Tongyeong. Great Britain’s Will Clarke won the under23 European title in 2006 and looks for similar success as an elite. Russian Alexander Brukhankov, last year’s under23 silver medalist, and the prodigious Alistair Brownlee of Great Britain, last year’s European junior champion, will both make their elite debuts in Lisbon.
Click here for full men’s start list
