Oceania Triathlon

Frederik van Lierde from Belgium and Charlotte Kolters from Denmark grabbed the European title on the 2007 Brasschaat ETU Long Distance Triathlon European Championships.

Frederik van Lierde dominated the whole race from the start till the finish. He completed the 3km swim section with a 40 seconds lead over his rivals, including Karel Smet, Thierry Verbinnen (both from Belgium) and Stephan Bayliss of Great Britain. Van Lierde added an other two minutes on his lead in the bike segment as he rode the best time of the day on the second discipline as well and he had a lead of four minutes over the second at this time, Gabriele Pertusati of Italy and five minutes over Bayliss, Jonas Colting of Sweden and other Belgian, Bert Jammaer. This lead was enough for him to secure his first ever European title. Colting finished second with the best running time of the day and Bayliss came on third.

In the women’s race the Danish champion, Charlotte Kotlers was out of the swim first and she did not let this lead taken by any other athletes during the whole race. Tine Deckers of Belgium performed on the bike almost as fast as the men, but she was not fast enough to get close to Kotlers. Hector Alice from Great Britain was 2 minutes behind Deckers after the bike, but caught her during the run. After over 4 hours of competing, they had to decide the on the silver medal in a spectacular sprint finish, where Deckers was the faster.