This year’s European Duathlon Championships were held in Italy from March 17 to 19. The athletes competing in the sport that combines running and cycling were hosted by the city of Caorle in the Veneto region. It is a tourist town on the Adriatic with a very long history, having been founded in the 1st century BC.
More than 580 athletes from 21 countries took part in the competition, including the Polish national team with Bolesławianka Klaudia Petters. On Sunday, March 19, the athletes competed over the standard distance. They had to complete 10 km (running) / 43 km (cycling) / 5 km (running). Despite it being her first race of the season, Klaudia displayed outstanding form, confidently winning the women’s competition and claiming the title of EUROPEAN CHAMPION.
The athlete herself best describes how the competition unfolded:
From the beginning, I told myself that I would fight for victory among all the women. But, of course, nobody has ever won with words alone. After the start, I set off strongly and was in the top three from the very beginning. Unfortunately, after 2 km the Italian pulled away and finished the 10 km run about 1 minute ahead.
I love multisport because here one discipline does not seal the outcome as a win or a loss.
After the first 5 km on the bike, I saw the Italian on the horizon and knew I was getting closer, which gave me strength. I managed to catch and overtake her around the 16th kilometre, and then I “grew wings.”
Once I had “tasted” first place—I had the honour, as the race leader, of riding the rest of the course behind a motorbike escort—I knew I would do everything and would not surrender the lead.
I put all my strength into that bike leg to build as large a lead as possible. I went through the transition zone fully focused and set off on the final run with a mixture of hope that I really could do it and fear that I would lose the lead (and, to be honest, second place after leading for so long would not have been satisfying).
Throughout the first of the two laps, I did not allow myself to get distracted or celebrate. Only after the turnaround and when I entered the second lap—when I had a chance to see how large my lead was—did I begin to believe 100% that I could do it.
During the final 1.5 km, I was grinning like an idiot at everyone along the way because I knew that no one could take it away from me anymore and that I was going to achieve what I had only dreamed of the day before. It was an honour to cross the finish line first among the women, with the Polish eagle on my chest. It cannot be put into words.