Baltic Championships - Valga delivers great races • Europe Triathlon

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Baltic Championships - Valga delivers great races

By Paul Groves | 27 Jun, 2016

ETU is not just a confederation of European nations. Within that confederation are also smaller groups. These groups of regional friends like to meet regularly for sporting challenges and so it is that we have the Balkan Championships, the Mediterranean Championships, the Nordic and the Baltic Championships. These events are open to all nations to participate and gives all athletes the chance to win money and points but of course, only those who qualify by nation are entitled to win the titles.

Valga, a small town in southern Estonia, close to the Latvia border was the location for this year’s Baltic Championships. With the summer evenings allowing more light, the format of Elite Races was slightly different to usual. The Elite Men set off at 18:00 and the women chased them at 18:05. At 32 C, the daytime temperature was tough but now easing down.

Coming out of the water first was Belarus athlete Henadzi Semashka. Close behind was team-mate Mikita Katsianeu.

The local crowds gave support for the two Estonians, Henry Räppo and Karl Johan Leitchter. Of the two, Räppo has been stronger recently and he was now well-placed to attack. Some 25 seconds off the pace was Spanish-born Alberto Casillas Garcia. He races under the Lithuanian flag and has been on the world circuit for the last year building up his experience.

It came down to a battle between Casillas and Räppo, with Casillas having just that bit more pace.

Behind the gold and silver medal-winners, Katsianeu had greater run pace than his team-mate Mikita Bely and that was enough to take him to bronze.

Casillas was buzzing after the race, “Baltic Champion, race near perfect, managing to do what I planned. It was maybe my best race ever. Good swim, although I lost a few seconds and on the bike, making the break with two Estonians (Räppo and Vabaorg). On the run, waiting for my moment and it came, with me flying to the finish line; so happy crossing it. PS: perfect organization by @trismiletri.” This race has set him off on The Road to Tokyo!

For the women, it was an early lead from Anette Hallik EST.

She led out two other Estonian athletes, Katrin Zaitseva and Paula-Brit Siimar. Zaitseva was the 2015 Estonian Junior Champion and the only threat they had was from Latvia’s Aļika Škarstāne, who was almost a minute off the swim pace.

Siimar ultimately had the greater strength and pulled away to take a comfortable gold. Zaitseva held on to silver and Hallik had to see Škarstāne pull past her to take bronze. After the race Siimar said, “That was my second race to compete in ETU-level competition. I have been doing triathlon since this year and I was really surprised when I crossed the finish line first. With quite good swim I managed to get into leading bike group and gave all may best in run leg. Thanks to my very professional coach Karmen Reinpõld and to all supporters!”

The event was a small festival of triathlon, with a variety of smaller open races, with a focus on younger athletes. On the Saturday night a concert ensured the great atmosphere continued and on the Sunday the LOC opened up again for older athletes. A weekend of triathlon fun in the centre of the Baltic States. Great thanks to Jüri Suurkivi for his photos.

Check out the full Valga album here.

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Related Event: 2016 Valga ETU Triathlon Baltic Championships

25 - Jun, 2016 • event page • all results

Results: Elite Men
1.	Alberto Eugenio Casillas Garcia	LTU	00:59:34
2.	Henry Räppo	EST	00:59:57
3.	Mikita Katsianeu	AIN	01:01:04
4.	Mikita Bely	AIN	01:01:24
5.	Kevin Vabaorg	EST	01:01:58
6.	Tautvydas Kopustas	LTU	01:02:08
7.	Ricardo Alcalde Perez	ESP	01:02:11
8.	Johannes Sikk	EST	01:02:16
9.	Hans Korman	EST	01:04:01
10.	Henadzi Semashka	AIN	01:04:26

Results: Elite Women
1.	Paula-Brit Siimar	EST	01:11:39
2.	Katrin Zaitseva	EST	01:12:27
3.	Aļika Skarstane	LAT	01:14:08
4.	Anette Hallik	EST	01:14:43
5.	Eleri Etverk	EST	01:15:54
6.	Unė Narkūnaitė	LTU	01:17:49
7.	Katre Meriloo	EST	01:19:05
8.	Karolina Luksyte	LTU	01:19:37
9.	Alina Padleckaite-Ranceva	LTU	01:20:25
10.	Viltė Narkūnaitė	LTU	01:22:05