UIPM 2019 Biathle/Triathle World Championships: Individual Triathle glory for Achterberg and Celecki (USA)

The USA continued to lead the charge in the senior categories on day three of the UIPM 2019 Biathle/Triathle World Championships in Saint Petersburg (USA).

The individual Triathle world titles were won by Samantha Achterberg and Barrett Celecki (USA), confirming the host nation’s dominance at senior level while a wide range of nations again shared the medals across other age categories.

It came in the wake of Achterberg and Amro Elgeziry (USA) winning the Mixed Relay double across Biathle and Triathle on the first two days.

Achterberg (USA), an established pentathlete who has already secured a qualification place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, won the women’s Triathle by a convincing margin of almost two minutes.

Her winning time was 18:38, and her compatriot Heidi Hendrick (USA) was almost as comfortable in the silver-medal position, timing 20:23. Kaixin Tung Shermaine of Singapore picked up bronze in a time of 22:07.

Celecki (USA) won the men’s gold in a time of 17min 14sec. Arman Kydyrtayev of Kazakhstan picked up the silver medal after timing 17:38 while Tiago Sousa of Portugal claimed bronze in 17:56.

The gold medals were shared among numerous nations, with individual world titles going to Great Britain (five), Egypt (four), France, Germany, South Africa and Japan (two) as well as Portugal and Kazakhstan (one).

More than 420 athletes from 33 countries are taking part across Biathle (Run-Swim-Run) and Triathle (Swim-Run-Shoot), and the competition will conclude with the individual Biathle on Sunday, October 27.

Competing on the Florida beach this week are people with an age span of more than 60 years. The age categories in Biathle range from Under-9 to Masters 70+ while Triathle spans Under-11 to Masters 60+. 

The UIPM 2019 Biathle/Triathle World Championships runs from October 24-27. Results are available at the UIPM website and fans can stay tuned to the World Pentathlon pages on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram for updates and photography.