Kazakhstanis performed at the Grand Final 2019 in Switzerland

On August 29, the main event of the season, the Grand Final of the World triathlon series - 2019 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final - started in the Olympic capital of the world in Lausanne. An event of a global scale, comparable in its significance and attractiveness to the mini-Olympic triathlon games, caused the accumulation of eminent triathletes of the world Elite, paratriathletes and amateur athletes from all over the globe. Among them were Kazakhstani athletes who came to test the Swiss course.

Members of the national team Ayan Beisenbaev, Temirlan Temirov, Meirlan Iskakov and Semyon Pivovarov performed at the World Championship in category U23. The “standard” distance of Lausanne did not submit to all 64 starting participants of this category, not all of them were able to successfully finish. The best result among Kazakhstani athletes was shown by Temirlan Temirov, who finished in 25th position with a time of 1 hour 55 minutes and 22 seconds. Ayan Beisenbaev was on the 38th line of the final protocol. His result is 1 hour 57 minutes and 37 seconds. Semyon Pivovarov completed the race with the 42nd result - 1 hour 59 minutes and 41 seconds. “Gold” went to the spanish Roberto Sanchez Montecon, who showed the result of 1 hour 50 minutes and 20 seconds. Second place went to Csongor Lehmann from Hungary with a result of 1 hour 50 minutes and 36 seconds. Three closed Ran Sagiv from Israel, who lost 30 seconds to the leader.

Another Kazakhstani member of the junior national team, Daniil Zubtsov, appeared in the category of juniors who fought for the world championships in the “sprint” distance (750 m swim, 20 km bike and 5 km run). Zubtsov finished in 56th position among 70 starting young men. His total time is 59 minutes and 43 seconds. The leader in this category was the Portuguese Ricardo Batista with a result of 55 minutes and 5 seconds. 7 seconds he lost to Australian Lorcan Redmond. 11 seconds later, the Spaniard Sergio Bater Cabrera finished and won the “bronze” award of the championship.

We asked several questions following the race of the head coach of the national triathlon team Andrei Glushchenko.

- What were your expectations from the national team for this World Championship?

- Expectations were higher than the results that the guys showed. We expected Ayan Beisenbaev to get into the top 10, and the rest will enter the top 20 finishers. As a result, Temirlan Temirov approached the leaders as close as possible and finished in 25th position.

- How do you rate the performance of our athletes? What mistakes were made?

- Frankly speaking, the performance can be called weak. This is not the maximum that our athletes are capable of. The main mistake made in the season was that everyone focused on the sports day as much as possible (V Summer Sports Triathlon Games in Karaganda - approx. Ed.), Where you can say they showed the best results of the season. The high competition that prevailed at the Sports day, forced them to throw out the last remaining strength and did not allow us to show the true strength of our athletes at the World Championships. The solution to the issue is a balanced preparation of the entire team, without exception, for the main starts of the season. But this is feasible provided that the coaching staff can agree among themselves and come to a common mutually beneficial solution.

- Who would you single out among our athletes who raced?

- I can distinguish Temirlan Temirova, who today was a cut above the rest of the guys from our team. But this is far from his limit. I believe he is capable of much more.

- Will these results affect the Olympic qualification ranking?

- These results will not affect the ranking, because points were given only to the top 20 athletes. Now the most important thing is to restore strength and storm new heights as soon as possible.

- Where else will the members of our team perform?

- September 7, Daryn Konysbaev performs at the World Cup in Spain. We decided to save our strength and focus on the selection at the Olympic Games for Daryn. On September 19, all the guys who started in Lausanne and Arina Shulgina will perform at the domestic Asian Cup in Aktau, then at the Asian Cup in Jordan, then at the European Cup in Turkey and the Asian Cup in Hong Kong. And finally, the main series of starts: the World Cups in South Korea, in Japan, in Peru and the finalli in the Dominican Republic. As you noticed, the season is very long, so it’s too early to get upset. There are still chances for selection at the Olympics in Tokio.

Note that the grand finale in Switzerland will last until September 1. Elite category athletes are expected to perform, followed by paratriathletes and amateur athletes by category.