Sandra Mairhofer (ITA) and Lukas Kocar (CZE) won the second round of the XTERRA Short Track off-road triathlon series with winning times of 40:43 and 34:31, respectively, on a beautiful day in Prachatice, Czech Republic on Sunday, August 14, 2022.
It’s the first XTERRA Short Track win for Mairhofer, who captured the full-distance XTERRA European Championship raceyesterday, and the second for Kocar - who won his first in Germany last year.
The race combined a two-lap, 400-meter swim with an exciting four-lap, 7.6K mountain bike course and a tough two-loop, 2.4K trail run.
In the women’s race a young wild card entry from Italy, Anna Gazzari, had the fastest swim (6:33), with Amanda Felder (USA) and Maria Calleja (ESP) about 15 seconds back.
By the second of four laps on the bike the leaderboard changed completely with Mairhofer in front followed by Alizee Paties (FRA), Solenne Billouin (FRA), Loanne Duvoisin (SUI), and Jindriska Zemanova (CZE) - which would end up being the top five into transition and the finish line in that same order.
Mairhofer posted the fastest bike split and looked dominant all morning long. “I’m over the moon, and full of adrenaline,” said Mairhofer. “My swim was better than yesterday, and I felt fine swimming in the group at my own pace. It was a pretty messy swim actually, I just tried to survive and stay above the water. And then I really loved the course, loved the rocks, and I was feeling really confident on the technical parts. This is my first Short Track win, so I’m pretty happy.”
Women’s Results Place - Name, NAT (Final Time) Points 1 - Sandra Mairhofer, ITA (40:43) 100 2 - Alizee Paties, FRA (41:07) 90 3 - Solenne Billouin, FRA (41:14) 82 4 - Loanne Duvoisin, SUI (41:18) 75 5 - Jindriska Zemanova, CZE (44:16) 69 6 - Amanda Felder, USA (44:26) 63 7 - Carina Wasle, AUT (44:34) 58 8 - Beatriz Ferreira, POR (44:48) 53 9 - Georgia Grobler, RSA (44:55) 49 10 - Anna Gazzari, ITA (45:38) 45 Complete Women’s Results
