Sad news from the World Triathlon Championships in Lahti: One athlete has died

There has been a death in the triathlon half-distance World Championships in Lahti.

Today, the women’s competition of the World Triathlon Half Distance Championships in Lahti took a sad turn.

– Today we got to celebrate the great achievements of the Ironman 70.3 MM athletes. We are shocked to share the sad news of the passing of one of our competitors. The athlete was lifted from the water in the middle of the swimming leg. He received immediate medical help from water safety first aid personnel, informs the race organizer.

– The treatment was continued on the beach by the emergency personnel, which included, among other things, two incident doctors. Despite all the efforts of the professionals, the athlete unfortunately passed away. Our thoughts are with the athlete’s family and friends and we want to support them at this very difficult time. We also greatly appreciate the medical and safety teams who worked quickly to provide the athlete with all possible medical support. To respect the family’s privacy, we will not comment further.

This is how the race happened

The past week in Lahti has been so international that you rarely see and experience something similar in these latitudes.

The triathlon half-distance World Cup has filled the whole city. Of course, Lahti has become known as the organizer of large international sports events before, but then it was mostly about winter sports.

On Saturday, the women’s series were contested, on Sunday it’s the men’s turn. More than 6,200 competitors from 115 countries have registered for the competitions. There are both professionals and age group athletes.

The only Finn in the women’s pro series was Tiina Pohjalainen, which was 17th in the final results. Pohjalainen was really satisfied with his performance.

– The position is quite good when you take into account how terribly hard the level is here. Cycling went the best of the sports. I was a little worried that my left calf was cramping badly, but luckily it didn’t bother me at all while running.

The women’s pro series was won by an American Taylor Knibb, whose winning time of 3:53.02 is the fastest in history at the World Championships. He took his second world championship in a row.