2022 Europe Triathlon Cup Kitzbühel witnesses crowning glory for Brit Olivia Mathias
The Alpine town of Kitzbühel in the Austrian province of Tyrol welcomed back this week-end the best of European triathletes for the 2022 Europe Triathlon Cup Kitzbühel to witness the crowning glory of Olivia Mathias of Great Britain and Matthew Roberts of Australia who both won their respective races.
After a cancellation in 2020 due to Covid and a difficult but successful triathlon European championship in 2021, Kitzbühel was again breaking new ground in 2022 with the “Eliminator Format” for the elite races for the first time in Europe having been introduced in the new-look 2021 World Triathlon Championship Series.
A full starting field from 23 nations across Europe as well as triathletes from Australia, Canada, Japan, the USA and New Zealand were registered. 49 women and 85 men at the start at the time to “get on your marks
In this new race format, after qualification on Friday 17th June, the athletes completed three short triathlons in a row on the final day on Saturday 19th. The top 30 from Friday’s qualification started in the first race. In each subsequent run, the number of participants is reduced by 10. In the final third run, the 10 best women and the 10 best men start against each other. Whoever crosses the finish line first after this competition is the overall winner of the Eliminator race.
A full starting field from 23 nations across Europe as well as triathletes from Australia, Canada, Japan, the USA and New Zealand are registered. 49 women and 85 men at the start at the time to “get on your marks
As expected, the course in Austria proved a challenging one over a very fast and tactical race circuit. Saturday’s finals saw three super sprint races take place. The bottom ten finishers from the first two race were eliminated to leave a top-ten shoot out in the final one.
Heading into the final were Great Britain’s Olivia Mathias for the women’s final and Dominic Coy and Ollie Turner for the men’s final after all them had been consistently been the quickest of the Brits in a weekend of racing
Stage 2 and the final round of the women’s race saw the Brit Olivia Mathias – having paced herself brilliantly in the previous two rounds – topping the podium ahead of Lena Meißner of Germany in second place and Angelica Prestia of Italy taking third
In the men finals it was a win for Austrialian Matthew Roberts with the German pair of Jannik Schaufler and Simon Henseleit coming second and third respectively.
Dominic Coy reached stage 3 of the final rounds and finished in an outstanding 6th place ahead of his compatriot Ollie Turner who although was 4th in stage 1 could not maintain a top 10 finish in stage 2 to make stage 3 of the final and was placed credible 14th overall.
See the results from all the races by clicking here:
