Per Bittner and Camilla Petersen take victory in fourth Half Challenge Barcelona-Maresme

Per Bittner (DEU) and Camilla Petersen (DEN) have taken out the top spots at the fourth Half Challenge Barcelona this weekend in a race that enjoyed perfect Mediterranean conditions and a sell-out field.

This was Bittner’s first major international victory and his strong athletics background worked well in his favour with the race coming down to a battle between himself and Stanislav Krylov (FRA) on the 21.1km run.    Rasmus Petreaus (DEN) took the fastest swim time in 22:51 with Krylov just two seconds behind while Bittner was a minute back in 10th. Krylov was first out onto the bike, a position he held for the duration. Bittner quickly rode up into second but couldn’t close the now two minute gap. By the 5km mark on the run, Bittner had closed the gap to just a few seconds and soon took the lead taking the win in a 3:50:45, a comfortable 2:50 minutes ahead of Krylov.    Spanish long distance champion, Raul Amatriain Arraiza, took out the final spot on the men’s podium in 3:55:15

In the women’s race Dane, Camilla Peterson, dominated the competition from the start  exiting the water in 25:28, just under three minutes ahead of the UK’s Lucy Gossage. By the 24km mark on the bike she had extended this lead to five minutes. The run started with Pederson nearly six minutes of Finland’s Tiina Boman who arrived in T2 in second with Gossage right on her heels just four seconds behind.

Bowman faded on the run while Gossage managed to close the gap to Pedersen by a couple of minutes but Pedersen proved too strong, taking the title in 4:14:24.

Challenge Barcelona is part of the Challenge Family global series of long distance triathlons features 11 races throughout Europe and Australasia, including the world’s largest iron distance event, Challenge Roth in Germany. Challenge races are known for their excellent athlete race experience to the athletes and commitment to the communities in which they take place.

Men
Per Bittner (DEU) “3:50:35
Stanislav Krylov (FRA) “3:53:45
Raul Amatriain Arraizz (ESP) “3:55:15
Miquel Blanchart Tinto (ESP) “3:55:56
Andreas Borch (DEN) “3:56:37

Women
Camilla Pedersen (DEN) “4:14:24
Lucy Gossage (GBR) “4:18:30
Tiina Boman (FIN) “4:21:30
Gurutze Frades Larralde (ESP) “4:27:40
Yvette Grice (GBR) “4:28:44