Filip Ospaly of the Czech Republic won it on the run and Kaisa Lehtonen of Finland won the women's title on the bike at the Challenge Rimini half – which doubled as the ETU Middle Distance European Championship.

Ospaly finished the swim five seconds behind defending ETU European Middle Distance Champion Giulio Molinari, fell 1:40 behind the Italian on the bike, then on his way to a 3rd -fastest 1:14:11 run passed Molinari at the 14 kilometer mark. Ospaly finished the hilly bike-flat run course in 4:06:14 with a 1:09 margin over Molinari, who established a significant lead at T2 with a race-best 2:21:22 bike split but lost the race with a 4th-best 1:16:48 run.

Ospaly held off 3rd-place finisher Bart Aernouts of Belgium by 46 seconds. Aernouts, who lost his chance at victory with a 28:08 swim, poste the second-fastest 2:21:53 bike split and closed with a race-best 1:13:54 run to eke out a 3 seconds margin on 4th place finisher Ruedi Wild of Switzerland who dueled elbow-to-elbow with Aernouts with a 1:13:55 run.

After trailing swim leader Margie Santamaria of Italy by 2:03 and Vanessa Raw of Great Britain by 1:50, Lehtonen quickly erased her deficit and established a 6-minute lead on the tough, hilly bike course with a by-far-women's-best bike split of 2:43:44.

Sara Dossena of Italy, who started the year with a with a second place at the European Duathlon Championship and another second at the ETU Olympic distance race in Madrid, surrendered 1:07 to Lehtonen on the swim and 7:42 to the winner on the bike leg. Whereupon the fleet-footed Italian slashed through all the chasers with a race-best 1:19:02 run which left her with yet another runner-up tally, 5:25 back of the winner. Raw finished with a 1:26:40 run to take 3rd, 4:28 behind Dossena.

Challenge Rimini / ETU Middle Distance European Championship
Rimini, Italy
May 24, 2015
S 1.9k / B 93 k / R 21.1k

Results

Men

1. Filip Ospaly (CZE) 4:06:14
2. Giulio Molinari (ITA) 4:07:23
3. Bart Aernouts (BEL) 4:08:09
4. Ruedi Wild (SUI) 4:08:12
5. Thomas Stegher (AUT) 4:13:46
6. Artem Parienko (RUS) 4:14:18
7. Jonathan Ciavattella (ITA) 4:14:23
8. Alberto Alessandroni (ITA) 4:15:25
9. Cyril Viennot (FRA) 4:16:18
10. Ritchie Nicholls (GBR) 4:16:50

Women

1. Kaisa Lehtonen (FIN) 4:41:14
2. Sara Dossena (ITA) 4:46:39
3. Vanessa Raw (GBR) 4:51:07
4. Margie Santamaria (ITA) 4:55:58
5. Martina Dogana (ITA) 4:56:17
6. Eva Potuckova (CZE) 4:56:26
7. Giorgia Priarone (ITA) 4:56:52
8. Olga Dmitrieva (RUS) 5:04:23
9. Eleanor Haresign (GBR) 5:06:05
10. Ewa Komander (POL) 5:11:44