GB’s Magnificent Seven Ride in Yenisehir European Triathlon Cup
Seven British Triathletes took to the field this Easter Sunday to participate in the European Triathlon Cup hosted by the Yenişehir Municipality of Mersin in Turkey.
The sole British representative in the elite women’s race was Issy Morris off the back of a second-place finish in the combined senior and junior women’s race at the British Triathlon Super Series Performance Assessments. It was Morris’ first international race since 2019, when she finished fourth at the Europe Triathlon Sprint Triathlon Cup in Hungary on her first senior international start.
In the men’s race six elite athletes lined-up to ply their trade and make a mark on the international scene in one of the seasons opening races
Of the six, Jack Willis and Iestyn Harrett have had a number of top-10 finishes to their names at continental cup events. Willis’ latest top-10 came in Barcelona last October, while Harrett finished fourth at the Asia Triathlon Cup Doha at the end of last year.
Like Willis and Harrett, Oliver Turner and Cameron Harris has already competed at a Europe Triathlon Cup race in 2022, having raced at Europe Triathlon Cup Melilla earlier this month. Also on the start line was Turners’ Channel Island rival, Guernsey’s, Josh Lewis a comparative latecomer to triathlon who was 3rd at the British Grand Final. It was also a first international start for last year’s British sprint triathlon junior silver medallist Hamish Reilly who will make his senior international debut.
In the coastal city of Mersin the athletes were competing over the sprint distance, starting with a 750m swim in the Mediterranean Sea, before a 20km bike between the Archaeology Museum and Mersin Marina junction and finishing with a 5km run along the seafront.
Womens Race
Issy Morris (GB) put in a sterling performance to take 5th place in the women’s race and was in touch with the leaders throughout the race. In and out of T1 and the lead group were caught by the chasing pack to make a peleton of about 21 riders. But it was the German athlete Tanja Neubert who was 5th in Triathlon Cup Melilla who really powered down on the bike section with the fastest split time of 00:29:24 along with Ukraine athlete Sofiya Pryyma. Morris held with the front pack and was in tenth place coming out of T2 on to the run. The German Neubert was however in fine form maintained her lead with the fastest run split of the day in 00:17:14 to cross the winning tape and take the gold with Switzerland’s’ Nora Gmür’ running through to take silver and Roksana Slupek of Poland taking home the Bronze. Brit Issy Morris ran through the pack from 10th to take 5th place just outside the podium places.
Men’s Race
Seventy athletes from 21 countries lined-up for the beach start for the 750m swim and there was no clear swim break-away as they all raced in and out of T1. A group of around 30 athletes formed the front pack but like the women’s race none of the athletes were able to make a small pack break-away. Coming towards T2 there some jostling for position in the final kilometres in order to have a head-start on the run section.
Going out of T2 it was clear this was going to be a runner’s race and it was the Moroccan Jawad Abelelmoula – who burst onto the World Triathlon scene winning the 2021 World Triathlon Cup in Korea and 2021 Asian Cup – who sprinted to the winning line first to take the gold closely followed by the seasoned athletes of Csongor Lehmann of Hungry who took silver with Germanys Henry Graf taking home the bronze.
The British boys gave it they’re all with 16th 17th and 18th spots going to Jack Willis, Cameron Harris and Iestyn Harret respectively. Oliver Turner was 45th whilst Debutant Hamish Reilly who pushed the bike section hard and broke away from the front pack in the early stages (we have all made that mistake) came in 35th but will have gained invaluable experience of international racing which is in another dimension from the domestic circuit. The Channel Isle lads rounded off the Brit results with Oliver Turner 45th and Josh Lewis 57th.
