20th WMC Triathlon – Lidkoping (SWE) – Final Day
LIDKOPING (SWE) – The 50th WMC Triathlon took place yesterday in the city of Lidkoping in Sweden.
In the Elite Men category, the spectators attended a French-Swiss clash between Pierre le Corre (FRA), Aurélien Raphael (FRA) and Andrea Salvisberg (SUI). The three athletes all finished the swimming part in 00:18:54. Salvisberg even took the lead after a bike race well managed. But the Swiss triathlete couldn’t keep up the pace of the French athletes. Pierre le Corre took the opportunity of the race part to show that he was the best athlete of the event. With a final time of 01:53:25, Pierre le Corre became the new triathlon Military World Champion 38 seconds ahead of the French silver medallist Aurélien Raphael while Salvisberg took bronze.
Despite the good individual French results, the Russian team, composed of Ilia Prasolov, Aleksandr Briukhankov and Kirill Goldoviskii) finally took the first place of the Elite Men’s Team event. France (Pierre le Corre, Aurélien Raphael and David Hauss) grabbed the silver medal ahead of China (Faquan Bainke, Xunyu Bainke and Kejun Shi)
The French Laurent Lambert (02:04:39) won the men’s senior event ahead of two Canadian athletes, Alexandre Boule (02:07:24) and David Simpkin (02:07:48)
In the Elite Women event, Vittoria Mello face a huge disappointment as she led the race during the swimming and bike events. With an 87-seconds lead before the run, everyone was expecting Mello to take the gold medal, but the Russian Elena Danilova managed to achieve an impressive run and even surpassed Mello to take the gold medal! What an amazing performance from the Russian athlete. Danilova took the silver medal just ahead the Chinese bronze medallist Chunyan Xiong!
China took the Elite Women’s Team title thanks to Chunyan Xiong, Lianyuan Wang and Mengying Zhong. The individual gold medallist Elena Danilova won the silver medal of the event with her teammates Anastasiia Abrosimova and Iuiia Golofeeva. Brazil (Vittoria Mello, Beatriz Orzechowski and Luiza Azevedo) took bronze.
Another Russian, Olga Dmitrieva won the women’s senior title in 02:19:52 while Lesley Quinlan (CAN) and Amelita Polonyiné Svéd (HUN) respectively took the silver and bronze medal in 02:26:32 and 02:26:53.
Russia won another title with the gold medal of Elena Danilova, Ilia Prasolov, Aleksandr Briukhankov and Kirill Goldoviskii in the Elite Mixed Team Event ahead of France and China while Canada (Lesley Quinlan, Alexandre Boule and David Simpkin) took the last gold medal of the event with the gold medal in the Senior Mixed Team event ahead of Hungary and Germany.
All the results of the event are available here.
The Awarding and Closing Ceremonies took place right after the competitions in presence of the following guests: the CISM Official Representative of the event Colonel Nelson J. Lopez from Angola, the Commander of Skaraborg Wing F 7 Colonel Lars Helmrich, the PCSC Sailing Brigadier Hassan A. A. Awad, the Chief of Delegation of Sweden to CISM Lieutenant-Colonel Sven Antonsson, the Chiefs of Mission of the participating Nations as well as national and international high authorities.
Colonel Lars Helmrich, Commander of Skaraborg Wing, declared in his closing speech: "I must say I am impressed of the athletes. Your performance today has been outstanding and you have completed the championship in the most honorable way". He also added: "On another, higher, level, this weekend has also been a success. Military sports competitions like these promote “Friendship through Sport” and thus contributes to a safer and more peaceful world. And at the end of the day, that is the mission that unites us all!"
The Chief of Staff Swedish Navy, Rear Admiral Jens Nykvist, also took the floor during his closing speech: "Today, the real significance of Military sport relates to the increasing importance of multinational military cooperation in building peace and security around the world. One of the major missions of our Armed Forces today is to work together in multinational missions. To be able to carry out these missions efficiently and safely, we have to know each other; we have to develop a solid base of common values from which to work. It is in this broad context that I find the continued importance of military sports cooperation.From a Swedish Armed Forces point of view, we prioritize military sports that contribute to enhance the abilities and physical performance of the soldiers and seamen. I therefore strongly welcome this triathlon competition which is enhancing the abilities of strength, precision, endurance, teamwork and courage".
He finally added: "You are all winners; you have showed that you belong to the absolute elite in your country and thanks to your own efforts; you have created a possibility to compete against the best competitors from other countries. Last but absolutely not least you have also created a great opportunity to make lifelong contacts with military friends from other nations"!
The OCR Colonel Nelson J. Lopez took the floor during the Closing Ceremony and thanked the Swedish organizers and the Swedish Delegation to CISM for hosting this wonderful event!
Thank you Sweden and see you next year in Wuhan!
More information on the Organizing Committee website and Facebook Page.
All the pictures of the event are available on the CISM Flickr account!
(Source: CISM Media and Communication Department)
(Pictures: Mr. Eddy Kellens, CISM Photographer)
