The Hungarian team composed of Gergely Kiss, Zsanett Bragmayer, Gergő Dobi, and Márta Kropkó won the bronze medal in the mixed relay of the triathletes on Saturday’s competition day of the Krakow-based European Games.
The weather in Kraków kept to its usual pattern and rain greeted the athletes on the last day of the triathlon competitions. Under conditions that could not be described as pleasant, each member of the 17 starting medley relay team had to swim 300 meters, cycle five kilometers and run one and a half kilometers.
In the Hungarian quartet, Gergely Kiss started 23rd in the individual, and he did so very well. He came out of the Nova Huta lake first, then during the cycling he was in the lead, and at the end of the run he replaced Zsanett Bragmayer in seventh place.
The triathlete, who was competing in Montreal a week ago and placed eighth in the world championship series there, could be expected to bring the relay to the front of the field. He overcame his disadvantage of around ten seconds during the swim and jumped on his bike as a member of the first five. In this section, after the first few hundred meters, a group of seven people formed at the front, which split in half after the Swiss and German triathletes fell heavily in front of a U-turn. Bragmayer was out of the accident, so he was in the lead with his Irish and Norwegian competitors. He started running first, and was replaced by Gergő Dobi in second place, behind Leanne Lehair from Luxembourg, who sprinted fantastically.
In the individual 24th, Dobi, like his colleagues, swam great and arrived in first place at the relay in front of the almost full auditorium, where the music played throughout the competition and the local atmosphere manager made sure that everyone had a good time until the triathletes were out of sight. they struggle.
At the end of the cycling session, Gergő Dobi was slightly behind and started the run in seventh place, at the end of which he “caught up” with Márta Kropkó in sixth place at the changeover. The 20-year-old talent, who ranked 15th in the individual race, also did a great job in swimming, she easily caught up with those who started in front of her in less than 300 meters and got on the bike in third place. By the end of the five-kilometer stage, the British, Norwegian, Swiss and Hungarian finishers had a slight advantage over the others, so the fate of the medals was decided between them.
The women’s individual champion, Solveig Lovseth, did the best in the run, followed by Great Britain’s Sian Rainsley. Kropkó battled with the Swiss, but Nora Gmuer had to stop for 10 seconds due to a penalty, and Kropkó eventually ran across the finish line in third place, punching the air and hugging her teammates.
(Debreceni Nap)
