Europe Triathlon

Elazig, Turkey will host the 2012 Balkan Championships which return for a second year of competition.

Last year saw the inaugural Balkan Championships held in Mamaia, Romania – proof of the ETU’s commitment to developing Triathlon across Europe.

Athletes from Serbia, Greece, Romania, Turkey and Bulgaria are represented in the starting lineups and this is a fabulous opportunity for them to compete in a level playing field.

Turkey will host these Championships following a consensus from the Balkan countries at the ETU Congress in Israel in April.

Hamdi Gunes, President of the Turkish Triathlon Federation, said: “All of the countries decided that Elazig was the most suitable location to host an International triathlon event.
“Hosting the Triathlon Balkan Championship has been also approved from ETU. All kind of infrastructure has been completed, the course is ready for the race.”

In this festival of Triathlon there are Junior, Age Group, Youth and Elite categories covering the Super Sprint and Sprint distances.

The Elite race is a standard Sprint distance triathlon of 750m swim/ 20km bike/ 5km run.

Last year’s Balkan Championships were dominated by the Ukranian duo of Roman Korol and Viktoriia Kachan who won the respective Elite races.

In the Elite Women’s race in Elazig, Stefania Ion (ROU) and Cigdem Gulgec (TUR) return from last year. They finished 3rd & 4th respectively in Mamaia and will hope to improve here. Gulgec in particular will be buoyed by the home support.

In the Elite Men’s race, only Mert Onaran (TUR), Vladimir Stojsavljevic (SRB) and Ciprian Balanescu (ROU) competed in Mamaia.

Neither athlete made the podium and they will hope to rely on their experience of these Championships to make the podium this time round.

A full race report and results will appear on the ETU website in due course.