Thomas Hellriegel and Rachel Joyce take the win at TriStar111 Estonia

Écrit par Gaspar Sukk | 07 Août 2011

Thomas Hellriegel and Rachel Joyce have captured victory at TriStar111 Estonia and in doing so, succeeded 2010 winners Philip Graves and Desiree Ficker.

Today the 111-kilometer TriStar Estonia triathlon was held at Pühajärve, Estonia. German veteran Thomas Hellriegel reached first place with a time of 3 hours, 12 minutes and 53 seconds. Surprisingly, the second place went to irishman Bryan McCrystal, who only took up triathlon three years ago, with a time of 3 hours, 13 minutes, 12 seconds. Estonian Ironman Florida champion Kirill Kochegarov took third place with 3 hours, 14 minutes and 2 seconds.

Thomas Hellriegel, 40-year-old triathlon veteran and winner of TriStar111 Estonia 2011 said: „I had a pretty tough challenge regarding the running course, as the road went up and down constantly. But when I saw that the next racer would not be able to catch me, I took down my tempo a bit and was able to finish at a relaxed pace. I am very happy with the event and results!“

Estonia’s third place triathlete Kirill Kochegarov commented: „I felt really tired today while racing, the first two cycling laps were good, but during the last lap I saw the guy cycling infront of me and I felt that I did not have the power in my feet to catch up to him.“

„This was the second year for TriStar Estonia at Pühajärve and I am extremely happy that we have had such popularity amongst athletes and spectators. I especially want to thank all the professionals who took on the tough terrain of Southern Estonia,“ commented Ain-Alar Juhanson, head of TriStar Estonia. „Pühajärve has proven to be a great place to hold triathlon events and next year will definitely be even better“, added Juhanson.

The first woman to cross the finish line was Rachel Joyce from the United Kingdom (03h30m44s), second was Merja Kiviranta from Finland (03h39m59s) and third Tiina Boman from Finland as well (03h43m49s).
Over 500 triathletes participated in today’s event, meaning that the four events (charity race StarRun5, children’s distance 11.1 and amateur distance 33.3) brought over 850 triathletes to compete at Pühajärve, Estonia this weekend.

Results for the triathlon weekend, pictures and videos can be viewed at Pühajärve can be viewed at tristarlive.com and www.tristar111estonia.com.