2019 saw the running of an increasingly popular middle distance event in the capital of the Czech Republic, which began with a swim in the Vltava river before heading out on a 2 lap route around the city and finally taking in a 3 lapped run course alongside the river.
This race saw another win to add to the growing tally for Radka Kahlefeldt, who was racing on home soil as a proud Czech triathlete. She started the race as one of the favourites, alongside Olympic gold medallist Lisa Norden (SWE) and Katrien Verstuyft (BEL) - the reigning champion from the 2018 race. The wetsuit legal saw Radka take to the front in her Zone3 Vanquish alongside Lisa Norden and gaining a sizeable lead over the rest of the field. Radka and Lisa exited the water after 25 minutes and set about riding hard to gap the remaining professional female athletes.
Onto the bike, Norden really pushed the pace, using her talents as Swedish Time Trial Champion from 2018 to use and managed to gap Kahlefeldt to enter T2 solo with a 4 minute gap over Radka, who in turn had a sizeable gap over the remaining pros battling it out for a podium spot. It was on the run that Kahlefeldt set to overcome this deficit, and by halfway on the 21km run leg had almost closed the gap to Norden. By 18km into the run, Radka had asserted her lead over Norden and was free to run away to victory.
By closing with a 1:24:37 half marathon run, Radka was fast enough to take the tape clear of her competition and take the win on home soil. “This was a very exciting day from the beginning to the end.
All was worth it as I had a great race and have won my third race in a row!”
She may not have realised at the time, but she was being chased down hard by a fast-moving Eva Wutti (AUT) and Lisa Roberts (USA), who both set faster run splits than the leader. However, Radka had been consistently quick across the 3 disciplines and left herself enough of a buffer by the end of a hard bike leg to stay away.
Radka Kahlefelt 1st – 4:22:13
Lisa Norden 2nd – 4:24:11
Eva Wutti 3rd – 4:31:35
