Ospaly, Lehtonen win Rimini
Filip Ospaly of the Czech Republic won it on the run and Kaisa Lehtonen of Finland won the women's title on the bike at the Challenge Rimini half – which doubled as the ETU Middle Distance European Championship.
Ospaly finished the swim five seconds behind defending ETU European Middle Distance Champion Giulio Molinari, fell 1:40 behind the Italian on the bike, then on his way to a 3rd -fastest 1:14:11 run passed Molinari at the 14 kilometer mark. Ospaly finished the hilly bike-flat run course in 4:06:14 with a 1:09 margin over Molinari, who established a significant lead at T2 with a race-best 2:21:22 bike split but lost the race with a 4th-best 1:16:48 run.
Ospaly held off 3rd-place finisher Bart Aernouts of Belgium by 46 seconds. Aernouts, who lost his chance at victory with a 28:08 swim, poste the second-fastest 2:21:53 bike split and closed with a race-best 1:13:54 run to eke out a 3 seconds margin on 4th place finisher Ruedi Wild of Switzerland who dueled elbow-to-elbow with Aernouts with a 1:13:55 run.
After trailing swim leader Margie Santamaria of Italy by 2:03 and Vanessa Raw of Great Britain by 1:50, Lehtonen quickly erased her deficit and established a 6-minute lead on the tough, hilly bike course with a by-far-women's-best bike split of 2:43:44.
Sara Dossena of Italy, who started the year with a with a second place at the European Duathlon Championship and another second at the ETU Olympic distance race in Madrid, surrendered 1:07 to Lehtonen on the swim and 7:42 to the winner on the bike leg. Whereupon the fleet-footed Italian slashed through all the chasers with a race-best 1:19:02 run which left her with yet another runner-up tally, 5:25 back of the winner. Raw finished with a 1:26:40 run to take 3rd, 4:28 behind Dossena.
Challenge Rimini / ETU Middle Distance European Championship
Rimini, Italy
May 24, 2015
S 1.9k / B 93 k / R 21.1k
Results
Men
1. Filip Ospaly (CZE) 4:06:14
2. Giulio Molinari (ITA) 4:07:23
3. Bart Aernouts (BEL) 4:08:09
4. Ruedi Wild (SUI) 4:08:12
5. Thomas Stegher (AUT) 4:13:46
6. Artem Parienko (RUS) 4:14:18
7. Jonathan Ciavattella (ITA) 4:14:23
8. Alberto Alessandroni (ITA) 4:15:25
9. Cyril Viennot (FRA) 4:16:18
10. Ritchie Nicholls (GBR) 4:16:50
Women
1. Kaisa Lehtonen (FIN) 4:41:14
2. Sara Dossena (ITA) 4:46:39
3. Vanessa Raw (GBR) 4:51:07
4. Margie Santamaria (ITA) 4:55:58
5. Martina Dogana (ITA) 4:56:17
6. Eva Potuckova (CZE) 4:56:26
7. Giorgia Priarone (ITA) 4:56:52
8. Olga Dmitrieva (RUS) 5:04:23
9. Eleanor Haresign (GBR) 5:06:05
10. Ewa Komander (POL) 5:11:44
