From Neil Chapman…

Christos Tzelis was over at Coimbra in Portugal at the weekend representing GB, taking part in the European Sprint Duathlon Championship. This is the short course version so the intensity is high right from the start. He was competing with 360 other top-quality athletes, getting off to a good start in the 5k run and coming into the first transition with a small leading group in 15:47. He backed that up with a great 30:56 on the 20k bike section, so at that point there was only a couple of seconds between him and eventual second placed man Pablo Perez of Spain. Christos got his head down for an impressive final 2.5k run time of 8:12, stretching his lead to 36 seconds and a total time of 56:42, to become outright European Sprint Duathlon Champion.

Christos has had previous success in national competitions, winning or well placed in his age category, but he has really delivered this time, to be standing on top of the podium as outright European Champion is a major step up for him. Well done Christos, with all the hard training you subject yourself to, it is well deserved.