Ognjen Stojanovic (Serbia) and Barbara Riveros (Chile) emerged the men’s and women’s champions of the Chennai NTT ASTC Triathlon Asian Cup here on Sunday.
The initial swimming in the outside area of the INS Adyar Naval establishment was skipped due to rough sea conditions and a 5 km road running was had instead.
“Taking the safety aspect into consideration, we decided to skip swimming,” said Sri Lankan Sam Wikramasinghe, the technical delegate of the event.
Stajanovic made a sedate start, came third in the opening run, was second after cycling, and finished first after the second running phase.
He said he was “disappointed” the event could not have the swimming, but was happy with the final outcome.
Barbara was sixth after the initial running, jumped to the second spot after cycling, to finally finish first.
“I’m happy I could come to India. Like the people and the culture, but yes, triathlon without swimming was unexpected,” she said.
Adarsh Muralidharan Nair (Services Sports Control Board) and Sarojini Devi Thoudam (Manipur) won the men’s and women’s titles in the senior National championship.
The results: Asian Cup: Men: 1. Ognjen Stojanovic (Ser) 01.48.47s; 2. Oscar Coggins (Hkg) 01.49.03; 3. Jan Celustka (Cze) 01.49.24.
Women: 1. Barbara Riveros (Chile) 02.01.07; 2. Antoanela Manac (Romania) 02.01.25; 3. Arina Shulgina (ITU) 02.01.36.
National championship: Men: 1. Adarsh Muralidharan Nair (SSCB) 01.58.01; 2. Bishworjit Saikhom (SSCB) 01.58.42; 3. Mali Raghunath (SSCB) 02.03.15.
Women: 1. Sarojini Devi Thoudam (Mani) 02.21.20; 2. Monika Mukheshbhai Nagpure (Guj) 02.22.56; 3. Pragnya Mohan (Guj) 02.24.41.
