Europe Triathlon

The European Triathlon Union is delighted to announce the next phase of their athlete development programme which will see the creation of ‘Team ETU’.

Team ETU is a high performance team for European athletes aged between 17-21, from National Federations in ETU development categories 2 and 3, for the 2014 season.

An ETU selection commission has selected 15 athletes who showed their potential to compete at an elite level and earn ITU points during 2013. The youth development programme is aimed at enabling these athletes to compete at World Cups and World Triathlon Series events in the future.

The ETU will provide a travel grant for each of the 15 athletes to compete at four ETU European Cup events in 2014; Dneprotpretovsk (UKR) 24-25 May, Tartu (EST) 13 July, Riga (LAT) 9-10 August and Koper (SLO) 13 September.

The selected athletes are:

Male: Henrik Goesh (FIN), Milan Tomin (SRB), Max Biewer (LUX), Shahar Sahiv (ISR),
Amitah Yonah (ISR), Ali Atlan (TUR), Ithamar Alster (ISR), Aliaksander Dahkno (BLR), Bob
Haller (LUX) and Matija Meden (SLO)

Female: Ipek Oztosun (TUR), Hrista Stoyneva (BUL), Kaidi Kivioja (EST), Monika Orazem
(SLO) and Yuval Gome (ISR).

ETU President Renato Bertrandi said: “I am happy to announce that we will continue to support our young athletes throughout 2014. Our 2013 project was successful and appreciated by our
Federations and we have made some improvements to continue their development in 2014.”

Kathleen Smet, Secretary General of the ETU and a member of the selection commission, said: “The ETU is pleased to give these athletes an opportunity to grow in the sport in the hope that at the end they will manage to be part of the biggest sports show in the world; the Olympic Games.

“If some of those athletes can manage it will be a big success for ETU's athlete development programme.”

Other places are available for athletes in similar National Federation categories and it is up to each Federation to make an application which will be considered by the selection commission.

For more information on the ETU Development Plan 2014 and High performance criteria – please download the official information pack here.