Penza, 28 August 2016. PenzaNews. For the first time, Russian Triathlon Championship was held in the city of “Sputnik” on the outskirts of Penza on Saturday, August 27.

© PenzaNewsBuy the photo

At the opening ceremony, the athletes were greeted with bread and salt. The men, who were to start off in a matter of minutes, refused the food, but the juniors, who overcame the distance in the morning, took a piece with pleasure.

The guests sat in the stands or stood on top leaning on the embankment rail. Some also lined up along the bicycle route —they were not allowed close to the water.

Athletes had to overcome three stages.

The first stage — a 1.5-km swimming race. Athletes dived into the water from the platform installed on the embankment, went around special inflatable installation and returned to the riverbank. Having run up the sloping carpet which began in the water, they went barefoot up the stairs to the platform, where the bikes stood. They rolled them out on the track, sped up, and put their shoes on on the move.

After that the athletes rode 10 laps of 4km. The bell announced the last lap for each of the competitors.

After the 40-kilometer distance, the athletes jumped down from the bikes, immediately dragged them to the side, and went back to the site where the vehicles were taken. There triathletes changed shoes quickly and started off along the embankment of the pond and over the bridge. The 10-kilometer run finished at the fountain.

Men competitions were very skillful and without any special surprises — the leaders were determined at the first stage.

The first to finish was the participant of the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Dmitry Polyansky, representing Moscow and Krasnoyarsk Krai. His result was 1 hour 52 minutes and 37 seconds. Having made just a couple of steps after the final mark, he collapsed on the tiled embankment and lay there for some time motionless, then moved to the fountain, where he tried to cool. His example was followed by many athletes who completed the distance.

The second to finish was Vladimir Turbaevsky of Krasnoyarsk Krai, who lost 24 seconds to the leader. Bronze went to Denis Vasiliev, representing St. Petersburg and Yaroslavl region.

At that moment, the women were about to start. Their competition seemed more emotional and unpredictable — the leaders changed all the time.

So, towards the end of the cycling stage, those in the back caught up with the top three athletes, and it became particularly difficult to keep track of changes in leadership. One of the athletes had to leave the race at this stage.

The young athletes watched the renowned triathletes throughout the competition. The athletes who had already finished the race drank coffee, ate ice cream and even shawarma sold nearby.

Then women went on to the final stage of the competition.

After a long struggle the first to finish was Anastasia Abrosimova performing for Moscow and Krasnoyarsk Krai. Having overcome the last meters, she fell on the ground, burst into tears and could not calm down for a long time.

The athlete explained that that she felt sick before the start and did not expect to even get to the finish line, but after the start the “distance flew by easily.”

“I had a fever this morning. I thought about refusing to start. I showed character. Now I will have to recover for a very long time,” the champion said having finished the race within 2 hours 3 minutes and 49 seconds.

Alexander Razarenova representing St. Petersburg and the Saratov region finished second. The third place belongs to Maria Shorets performing for the same regions.

Anastasia Gorbunova and Yulia Golofeeva performing in parallel offset for the Penza region, had chances to enter the number of winners at the cycling stage, but they could not keep their positions and eventually took the sixth and seventh places.

The winners received awards from the Triathlon Federation President of Russia Sergey Bystrov, head of the Ministry of Sports of the Penza region Grigory Kabelsky and president of the regional federation of triathlon Dmitry Lavrentiev.

In addition, they awarded Alexander Ekimov with a certificate of a judge of the international category, Dmitry Butkov with a certificate of honored coach, and Dmitry Polyansky with a certificate of a Merited Master of Sports.
Then Sergey Bystrov thanked the organizers of the competition.

“Freaky place! There was an online broadcast today. We have received feedback from many people who watched the competitions on the Internet,” he said.

In turn, Grigory Kabelsky expressed confidence that many Penza residents, having watched the competition, discovered triathlon.

He also informed about the readiness of the region to welcome new competition of this level.