Greek triathlon PHENOM Panagiotis Bitados stars AGAIN in dominant Challenge Sanremo win

On a busy weekend, not surprisingly most eyes were elsewhere on events including the Women’s IRONMAN World Championship in Nice and the Europe Triathlon Championship in Vichy.

As well as those two races in France, Italy was also home to some professional middle-distance racing. Great Britain’s Sam Dickinson won at IRONMAN 70.3 Emilia-Romagna, and there was also more action at the third edition of Challenge Sanremo, which we round up here.

Bitados continues to impress

The Men’s winner, Panagiotis Bitados, continues to impress over the distance. The winner at Challenge Walchsee and the IRONMAN 70.3 European Championship (Tallinn) already this season, this was another domination. He ultimately took the tape with a winning margin of almost seven minutes. That result saw him jump 17 places in the latest PTO World Rankings, where he is now 27th. I wouldn’t be surprised if he is in contention for a T100 wildcard, sooner or later.

While Bitados was almost a gun-to-tape winner, the women’s race was a very different affair. Austria’s Therese Feuersinger is consistently one of the fastest swimmers in WTCS racing, and duly opened up a three and half minute lead over Rebecca Robisch over the opening discipline. All on nine (!) minutes back at this stage, Daniele Kleiser cut back a couple of minutes during the bike, before putting together a stunning run and take her first Challenge Family victory.

Challenge Sanremo Results 2024

Sunday 22 September 2024 – 1.9km / 82km / 21.1km

PRO Women

• 1. Daniela Kleiser (GER) – 4:37:41
• 2. Therese Feuersinger (AUT) – 4:42:40
• 3. Rebecca Robisch (GER) – 4:44:07

PRO Men

• 1. Panagiotis Bitados (GRE) – 3:54:37
• 2. Jonas Schomburg (GER) – 4:01:28
• 3. Jannik Stoll (GER) – 4:06:23

Challenge Sanremo 2024 In Pictures

A regular on these pages, photographer José Luis Hourcade (www.joseluishourcade.com) was on hand to capture the race in pictures.