European Elite Gold for Katrina Rye in her first Pro season
2019 has been rather impressive for Great Britain’s Katrina Rye.
- March: announced as a new member of Team Freespeed.
- April: impressive AG win (2nd fastest athlete overall) at Challenge Gran Canaria.
- May: earns GB Elite/Pro licence
- June: third on Pro debut at IRONMAN 70.3 Staffordshire, qualifies for 70.3 World’s
- June: second at IRONMAN 70.3 Lahti, Finland.
- July: wins ETU Middle Distance Triathlon Championships in Târgu Mures, in first GB Elite start.
Yeaaaa 🏆
European Elite Middle Distance Champion!
3 pro races; 3rd, 2nd and now 1st!
8 weeks until the real test; IM WC 70.3 Nice, France. pic.twitter.com/6I5gDU5gOm
— Katrina Matthews (née Rye) (@Katr_Matthews) July 8, 2019
A non-wetsuit swim in Transilvania, Rye was less than 1:20 down on swim leader Sonja Skevin (CRO) starting the bike. She then powered to the fastest ride of the day (2:11:04), to start the run with an advantage of more than three minutes over Ewa Bugdol (POL). Add the fastest run to that, and you finish up with a wining margin of more than six minutes.
The biggest championship out there? No.
The strongest field? No.
The most high profile race? No.
But – as I’ve personally advised many up-and-coming athletes in recent years – the wider public understands few things more clearly than ‘winning’.
On that basis – and taking that bullet point list above into account – you’d have to say that Katrina Rye has really not put a foot wrong in her rapid progress through 2019 to date. Congratulations. Next stop, the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championships in Nice, France.
Târgu Mures ETU Middle Distance Triathlon European Championships – Sunday 7th July 2019
1.9km / 82km / 20km
ELITE WOMEN
1st – Katrina Rye (GBR) – 4:07:35
2nd – Ewa Buggol (POL) – 4:13:56
3rd – Lilya Baranovska (UKR)
DNS – Alice Hector (GBR) – unable to start due to illness
ELITE MEN
1st – Andrey Bryukhankov (RUS) – 3:38:21
2nd – Filipe Azevedo (POR) – 3:43:31
3rd – Domen Dornik (SLO) – 3:46:05
Check out all the reports and news from Târgu Mures on these links:
Are we in a triathlon boom, or hurtling towards burnout? Laura Siddall on the growth of the sport
