James Teagle of Great Britain won it on the bike and the run and Sarissa De Vries of the Netherlands overcame a 1:39 deficit after the swim with a women’s-best bike and 2nd-fastest run to win the inaugural half-distance Challenge Gdansk.

Teagle led the field by one second after the bike leg then turned on the afterburners with a race-best 1:12:59 run that was 1:41 better than the next-best split of his rivals. He finished in 3:46:14 with a 2:04 margin over Matt Trautman of South Africa and 3:07 over 3rd place Pablo Dapena Gonzalez of Spain.

Coming off wins at Challenge Riccione and Challenge Mogan Gran Canaria earlier this season, De Vries overcame a 1:09 deficit to Great Britain’s Lucy Hall after the swim and bike, then jetted away with a women’s 2nd-best 1:25:44 run to finish in 4:12:21 with a 3:13 margin over Hall and 9:09 over 3rd-place Leanne Fanoy of France.

Men

In his first race in three years, Lukasz Wojt a former elite swimmer who was born in Gdansk but lives in Germany, dominated the swim with a 22:21 split that gave him a 42 seconds lead on Tomasz Brembor of Poland, 44 seconds on Dapena Gonzalez, 1:39 on Teagle, and 1:44 on Trautman.

Wojt maintained the lead for the first 30m kilometers of the bike leg, whereupon five men joined him in a front pack, including Franz Loeschke of Germany, Teagle, Trautman, Dapena Gonzalez and Henrik Goesch of Finland. Just before T2, Teagle broke away and led at T2 by 19 seconds. On his way to a race-best 1:12:59 run split, Teagle finished in 3:46:14 with a comfortable lead on Trautman and Dapena Gonzalez. At the line Trautman’s 1:14:44 run outpaced Dapena Gonzalez by 1:01 and the South African edged the Spaniard by 1:07 overall for second place.

Women

While the women’s swim wave started two minutes behind the men, Lucy Hall passed several of the men with a 23:43 split that gave her a 1:39 lead on De Vries and well over 3 minutes on the rest of the chasers - 3:36 on Carolin Lehrieder of Germany, 3:32 on Hana Kolarova of Great Britain, 3:36 on Carolin Lehrieder of Germany, 3:38 on Margie Santimaria of Italy and 3:41 on Aleksandra Jedrze Jewska of Poland.

Halfway through the bike leg, Hall increased her lead to 3 minutes on De Vries, who then fought back and closed to within 1:10 of Hall at T2.

After 5 kilometers of the run, De Vries passed Hall and cruised to a second best 1:25:44 run split. She finished in 4:12:21 with a 3:13 margin over Hall and 9:09 over 3rd place Leanne Fanoy of France, who closed with as women’s-best 1:23:59 run.

Challenge Gdansk
Gdansk, Poland
June 20, 2021
S 1.2 mi. / B 56 mi. / R 13.1 mi.

Men

1. James Teagle (GBR) S 24:00 T1 2:30 B 2:04:59 T2 1:46 R 1:12:59 TOT 3:46:14
2. Matt Trautman (RSA) S 24:05 T1 2:31 B 2:04:57 T2 2:01 R 1:14:44 TOT 3:48:14
3. Pablo Dapena Gonzalez (ESP) S 23:05 T1 2:24 B 2:06:05 T2 21:02 R 1:15:45 TOT 3:49:21
4. Henrik Goesch (FIN) S 24:04 T1 2:31 B 2:05:03 T2 2:03 R 1:17:15 TOT 3:50:56
5. Dominik Sowieja (GER) S 25:14 T1 2:32 B 2:07:14 T2 2:16 R 1:14:40 TOT 3:51:56
6. Franz Loeschke (GER) S 24:09 T1 2:29 B 2:04:53 T2 2:06 R 1:20:24 TOT 3:54:01
7. Kacper Stepniak (POL) S 24:37 T1 2:38 B 2:07:45 T2 2:02 R 1:18:04 TOT 3:55:04
8. Cyril Viennot (FRA) S 25:11 T1 2:28 B 2:07:02 T2 1:59 R 1:18:28 TOT 3:55:08
9. Lukasz Wojt (POL) S 22:21 T1 2:39 B 2:06:30 T2 2:18 R 1:21:31 TOT 3:55:19
10. Evert Scheltinga (NED S 24:07 T1 2:33 B 2:08:18 T2 1:56 R 1:18:51 TOT 3:55:45

Women

1. Sarissa De Vries (NED) S 25:22 T1 2:41 B 2:16:14 T2 2:20 R 1:25:44 TOT 4:12:21
2. Lucy Hall (GBR) S 23:43 T1 2:37 B 2:16:48 T2 2:19 R 1:30:07 TOT 4:15:34
3. Leanne Fanoy (FRA) S 31:07 T1 3:13 B 2:20:48 T2 2:23 R 1:23:59 TOT 4:21:30
4. Carolin Lehrieder (GER) S 27:19 T12:45 B 2:22:53 T2 2:33 R 1:31:30 TOT 4:27:00
5. Aleksandra Jedrze Jewska (POL) S 27:24 T1 2:38 B 2:27:14 T2 2:09 R 1:29:02 TOT 4:28:27
6. Katharina Grohmann (GER) S 34:23 T1 3:24 B 2:26:20 T2 2:43 R 1:30:37 TOT 4:37:27
7. Alena Sinay (SVK) S 30:26 T1 3:12 B 2:28:58 T2 2:38 R 1:35:30 TOT 4:40:44
8. Margie Santimaria (ITA) S 27:21 T1 2:38 B 2:32:34 T2 2:26 R$ 1:50:13 TOT 4:55:12
9. Annika Timm (GER) S 35:26 T1 3:17 B 2:42:22 T2 3:07 R% 2:04:21 TOT 5:28:53