Balikesir was the background for sprint and mixed relay action over the weekend as British triathletes went racing in the Europe Triathlon Sprint and Relay Championship.
The event took place over a heats and finals format for both senior and junior triathletes. Each round was competed over a 260m swim, 6.9km bike ride and a 1.8km run.
In the elite men’s race, Jack Stanton-Stock, Hamish Reilly and Marcus Dey were in action, with all three also featuring in the U23 rankings.
Stanton-Stock was in Semi-Final One but failed to qualify for the final coming 21st, instead progressing to the B final. In Semi-Final two Dey crossed the line in second behind Casper Stornes of Norway as the top nine were separated by just two seconds. Dey was joined by Solomon Okrafo-Smart in that semi-final and he crossed the line in 21st. He didn’t make either final and finished 62nd overall and 38th in the U23 standings. The final semi-final saw Reilly come seventh to make the final.
In the B final Stanton-Stock finish third, in what saw a five-way sprint for the line to cap things off, with the top five separated by just four seconds. That earnt him 33rd overall and 18th in the U23 rankings.
In the final, Reilly was the highest placed Brit finishing sixth and just five seconds off race winner Nicola Azzano of Italy. In the U23 standings he finished with a silver medal behind Euan De Nigro of Italy. Dey was ninth in the final and missed out on a spot on the U23 podium by just two seconds, finishing fourth
In the women’s races, Sophia Green, Daisy Davis, Libby Coleman and Bethany Cook were all in action. Davies, Coleman and Cook were also all included in the U23 rankings.
In Semi-Final One, Green and Coleman finished seventh and eighth respectively to progress to the final with just one second between the pair. Cook also progressed to the final coming fifth in the second semi-final. Davies was 12th in the third semi-final as she progressed to the B final.
Cook was the highest placed Brit in the final coming 11th, which was fifth in the U23 rankings. Coleman’s 17th place overall finish gave her a top-ten U23 finish as she ended the day ninth. Green crossed the line in 29th.
In the B final, Davies was 26th, giving her 56th overall and 34th in the U23 standings.
In the junior men’s race, Harry Maxwell, Luke Holmes and Christo Chilton represented the British interest. All three made the final as Chilton progressed from Semi-Final One with an 11th placed finish, while Maxwell and Holmes were sixth and ninth respectively in Semi-Final Three.
The final saw Maxwell finish as the lead Brit in 14th with Chilton in 19th. Holmes came 28th.
Megan Hornung, Millie Breese and Isla Hedley were the British trio racing in the junior women’s race in Turkey. Hornung came through Semi-Final One in third place, just two seconds off race winner Fanni Szalai of Hungary. In the second semi-final, Breese outsprinted Hedley to the line in a British 1-2 with the pair registering the same time.
Breese narrowly missed out on the podium in the final, crossing the line in fifth just seven seconds of third place Lisa Lecompte of France. Hedley was the next Brit over the line in 27th with Hornung a second back in 28th.
There were also two British sides in mixed relay action. A senior team made up of Reilly, Coleman, Dey and Cook came away with an impressive bronze medal with Germany (second) and Italy (first) ahead of them.
In the junior mixed team relay, Chilton, Breese, Maxwell and Hedley secured a top-ten finish as they ended the race seventh.
