Turkish delight at podium for Junior Women

NEWS

By Paul Groves | 15 Oct, 2016

The junior women lined up for the ETU Triathlon Junior European Cup with the sun shining, with the seas nice and smooth but with a small breeze that would be welcome out on the bike and run.

With a last-minute withdrawal from Dora Fuchs, we saw 11 athletes race for the medals. The heartbeats gave way to the pumping music. “Fire!!” roared out over the water and the race was on.

The athletes swam a 750 loop and coming out of the water to lead into T1 it was just six women.

To the delight of the local crowds, it was İlayda Kara, who was at the front of the group. As current Turkish national junior champion, this race would be a real test of the level of racing in Turkey as she was now racing against athletes from Russia, Great Britain, Hungary and Germany. With her came GB’s Lucy Farquhar, Buse Aygün TUR, Daria Lushnikova RUS, Sophie Fischer GER and Ezgi Sevcan Ustabaş. Turkey had three athletes in that lead group but with a 20k bike and 5k run, just how would this federation perform?

No penalties for the swim start. No penalties in T1 and they were out onto the bike course with a solid lead over the chasing athletes.

Race favourite, Fanni Soós HUN, was late for the race briefing and missed out on getting the best position on the swim start. She was leading the chase group and as the race unfolded pulled further and further away from the Turkish athletes who were alongside her but could not quite catch the leaders.

As the laps passed the lead group was working harder and harder and by the end of the first lap, Farquhar, Fischer, Lushnikova and Kara were working well and looking strong.

The medals, it seemed, would be shared between them but with one athlete losing out.

A clean transition from bike to run saw all four set off. Kara’s bike fell over as she racked it and then her helmet spilled out of the box. She tidied up the bike and chased after her helmet but still managed to get out onto the run in contact with the group that was being led by Fischer.

A two-lap run saw this group of four become three as Lushnikova was dropped by some 9 seconds. Out front it was Kara, Farquhar and Fischer. The German was sitting at the back as they took the bell and looked ready to pounce.

As the athletes came into view with just 200m to go it was Fischer who was leading. Kara had been dropped and so it was teat in her first ever visit to Alanya and her first ever ETU European Cup, she took the gold with a 5 second winning margin over Farquhar.

With this British silver we see yet another athlete from the county of Yorkshire. Yes, that county in the north of England that seems to grow the best athletes. The Turkish crowds cheered loudly as Kara came to the line to take bronze.

A fantastic, all-out effort from her and sure signs that the Turkish Federation is seeing strong results from its development programme.

After the race Fischer explained that her decision to kick on the run came just as she took her third bottle of water. She praised the crowds and the event as the best race she had ever been to. Farquhar was equally delighted. Her Dad stood by, proud. Very proud. Kara was buzzing with pleasure. She had won a lot of medals in Balkan events but today, winning a medal in Alanya was amazing. She had been training for the last two months for this race and gave her thanks to her coach, family and supporters.

ETU President Renato Bertrandi picked up on the development theme and praised the Turkish Federation, led by Hamdi Güneş, not only for the great race that we had seen but also for the racing success of the junior women.

The Juniors could now rest. The ETU Technical Officials set about preparing the course for the Women’s’ Elite. The sun rose higher. The temperature rose.

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Related Event: 2016 Alanya ETU Triathlon Junior European Cup

15 - Oct, 2016 • event page • all results

Results: Junior Men
1.	Gergő Soós	HUN	00:59:32
2.	Botond Karai	HUN	00:59:37
3.	Meirlan Iskakov	KAZ	00:59:40
4.	Gültigin Er	TUR	01:00:19
5.	Roman Afanasyev	KAZ	01:00:59
6.	Emirhan Altıntaş	TUR	01:01:25
7.	Dmytro Shabanov	UKR	01:01:37
8.	Velizar Velizarov	BUL	01:02:24
9.	Oguzhan Cakir	TUR	01:02:38
10.	Karim Othman	JOR	01:03:23

Results: Junior Women
1.	Sophie Fischer	GER	01:05:32
2.	Lucy Farquhar	GBR	01:05:40
3.	İlayda Kara	TUR	01:06:14
4.	Daria Lushnikova	AIN	01:06:46
5.	Fanni Soós	HUN	01:10:01
6.	Buse Aygün	TUR	01:12:11
7.	Elif Polat	TUR	01:15:07
8.	Ezgi Sevcan Ustabaş	TUR	01:15:36
9.	Gözde Nur Güvenbaş	TUR	01:16:03
10.	Merve Aybuke Sen	TUR	01:16:11