While the sport has not really taken off in Canada (Quebec City’s S3 World Cup race follows a different format), the ITU has been holding winter triathlon world championship races since 1997. This weekend the sport’s governing body kicked off the ITU Winter Triathlon season with the inaugural event in Harbin, China.
Russian athletes dominated the event, taking the top-five men’s spots and the top-three for the women, too.
The event took place at the Chinese resort area of Harbin, on a river in -16 degree temperatures and included a 6.88 km run, a 12.5 km bike and finished with a 10.32 km cross country ski.
Both races were won by the current ITU Winter Triathlon world champions – Pavel Andreev took the men’s race while Darie Rogozina took the women’s race. Andreev is a six-time winter world champ, while Rogozina took her first winter world title last year. The two were also part of the same winter 2 x 2 mixed relay world championship team, too.
Andreev skiied his way to the front of the race, finishing ahead of countrymen Evgenii Evgrafov and Pavel Yakimov as five Russian athletes led the way over a pair of Italian racers.
| First | Last | Country | Overall | Run 6.88 km | Bike 12.5 km | 10.32 Ski | |
| 1 | Pavel | Andreev | RUS | 1:22:51 | 0:26:14 | 0:26:27 | 0:28:07 |
| 2 | Evgenii | Evgrafov | RUS | 1:23:03 | 0:26:28 | 0:24:28 | 0:29:40 |
| 3 | Pavel | Yakimov | RUS | 1:23:14 | 0:26:15 | 0:26:19 | 0:28:29 |
| 4 | Dmitriy | Bregeda | RUS | 1:23:17 | 0:25:46 | 0:26:44 | 0:28:32 |
| 5 | Denis | Kabanen | RUS | 1:26:27 | 0:27:14 | 0:27:13 | 0:29:02 |
| 6 | Daniel | Antonioli | ITA | 1:26:35 | 0:26:13 | 0:27:35 | 0:29:48 |
| 7 | Giuseppe | Lamastra | ITA | 1:26:45 | 0:26:43 | 0:27:03 | 0:30:32 |
| 8 | Pello | Osoro | ESP | 1:28:00 | 0:26:16 | 0:27:09 | 0:29:59 |
| 9 | Kirill | Tarakanov | RUS | 1:29:43 | 0:26:27 | 0:28:29 | 0:31:53 |
| 10 | Oivind | Bjerkseth | NOR | 1:30:04 | 0:27:06 | 0:27:16 | 0:33:06 |
In the women’s race Rogozina, along with her countrywomen Yulia Surikova and Svetlana Sokolova pulled clear in the opening run and stayed away to dominate the women’s podium, with Rogozina using her impressive ski talents to move to the front in the final leg of the race.
| First | Last | Country | Overall | Run 6.88 km | Bike 12.5 km | 10.32 Ski | |
| 1 | Daria | Rogozina | RUS | 1:34:27 | 0:30:50 | 0:31:03 | 0:29:48 |
| 2 | Yulia | Surikova | RUS | 1:35:04 | 0:30:49 | 0:30:25 | 0:31:37 |
| 3 | Svetlana | Sokolova | RUS | 1:37:41 | 0:30:49 | 0:32:47 | 0:31:22 |
| 4 | Romana | Slavinec | AUT | 1:43:31 | 0:31:59 | 0:32:44 | 0:34:52 |
| 5 | Sandra | Mairhofer | ITA | 1:44:14 | 0:31:24 | 0:33:31 | 0:35:39 |
| 6 | Maija | Oravamäki | FIN | 1:46:39 | 0:31:15 | 0:38:00 | 0:33:33 |
| 7 | Lingshuang | Chen | CHN | 1:56:31 | 0:33:35 | 0:43:10 | 0:36:48 |
| 8 | Anna | Swoboda | AUT | 2:04:57 | 0:37:38 | 0:37:26 | 0:45:43 |
| 9 | Enara | Oronoz Mateo | ESP | 2:05:56 | 0:33:51 | 0:42:47 | 0:45:14 |
| 10 | Qiuxiang | Ma | CHN | 2:23:30 | 0:36:53 | 0:38:42 | 1:03:17 |
The next race in the winter world cup series is the world championship, which will take place at the Italian resort of Asiago in February.
Quebec City will host the ITU S3 International Winter Triathlon on February 23. That event features a 4.5 km run, an 11 km skate and a 9.5 km cross country ski.
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