The British female athlete’s consistent run of medals continued at the ETU Triathlon European Under-23 Championships in Burgas, Bulgaria with Sophie Coldwell winning a silver medal in the individual race over the sprint distance
Originally meant to be held over the Olympic distance,Coldwell, as a strong swimmer, would have hoped the swim would have provided more opportunity of a breakaway in perhaps her strongest discipline. Despite leading out of the revised 750m non-wetsuit swim, however the flat nature of the course saw athletes regroup and a large pack all descend upon T2 in close proximity with the medals to be decided on the 5km run course. Zoe Thomaswas also in that lead group at the start of the run.
A very close finish saw the first four athlete cross the line within six seconds, Coldwell surprising herself on the run to take the silver medal just one second in arrears to Italy’s Angelica Olmo.
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“Can’t believe little old me got my first championship medal from a run race!” she said after the event.
Coldwell also helped the mixed British team, of Zoe Thomas, Christopher Perham and Morgan Davies to a silver. In a close battle throughout, Italy took top spot on the podium in the final stages with the British team having to serve a 10 second penalty, Davies bringing the team home for the Silver with Spain completing the podium for the Bronze medals.
Spain’sDavid Castro Fajardo took the Gold in the Men’s race, with Grant Sheldon(fifth), the leading British athlete. As with the Women’s event, despite various attacks and breaks on the bike it was all down to the final 5km run as a huge group reached the second transition separated by very few seconds.
Burgas ETU Triathlon U23 European Championships – 750m / 20km / 5km (race amended to Sprint distance)
Women
1st – Angelica Olmo (ITA) – 1:05:35
2nd – Sophie Coldwell (GBR) – 1:05:36
3rd – Ekaterina Matiuk (RUS) – 1:05:37
20th – Zoe Thomas (GBR) – 1:07:10
DNS – Chloe Cook (GBR)
Men
1st – David Castro Fajardo (ESP) – 59:51
2nd – Dario Chitti (ITA) – 59:54
3rd – Shacher Sagiv (ISR) – 59:57
5th – Grant Sheldon (GBR) – 1:00:10
11th – Christopher Perham (GBR) – 1:00:25
24th – Morgan Davies (GBR) – 1:01:04
32nd – Calum Johnson (GBR) – 1:01:30
