Andreas Schilling (DEN), Rostyslav Pevtsov (ITU) and Simon Viain (FRA) won their respective men’s semifinal races in the Tiszaujvaros World Cup on Saturday.

Schilling finished first in semifinal 1 despite being fifth out of the water behind Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR), who finished second, while local triathlete Akos Vanek (HUN) came third and Dmitry Polyansky (RUS) finished fourth. 

“It was pretty tough in the heat. I didn’t expect to do so well, I was just going to be glad to make the finals,” Schilling said.

In semifinal 2, Pevstov (ITU) finished first ahead of Igor Polyansky (RUS), who was second in the swim behind Ben Kanute (USA), and Matthias Steinwandter (ITA), who came third. Despite his fast swim of 8’40”, Kanute finished eighth, just qualifying for Sunday’s final.

Several athletes bemoaned the difficult swim course, with its tight turns, as well as the heat.

Polyansky said: “Today for me swimming was not so good, it’s such a short distance with a lot of turns, and I didn’t do well in running today, so we’ll have to see how it goes in the finals. The distance is shorter than Olympic distance, so it was easier.

“Now I will try to rest so I just need to eat more and sleep more. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be feeling better than today.”

Simon Viain (FRA) won semifinal 3 ahead of Richard Varga (SVK), Justus Nieschlag (GER) and Tamas Toth (HUN).

Joint fastest in the swim with Varga (SVK), Viain said: “I decided to take a slow start in the swim to keep at the feet of the good swimmers and I got a better and better place and I was in a good position when I came out of the water.

“It was a little tough at the beginning of the bike, I had to chase for around 2km, and then we had some good relays with the other guys. I was relaxed on the run. I tried to keep a good pace, because I wanted to feel well for tomorrow. It was a good race for me.”

Looking forward to Sunday’s final he acknowledged that it will be a race of the top athletes.

“There will be many good athletes. I hope I’ll be in the same shape tomorrow, but it’s another day.”

Other athletes to qualify for Sunday’s final include Gabor Faldum (HUN) and Wikus Weber (RSA), who qualified for his first final.

“This is my first ever final, so I’m excited. I’m feeling good, everybody’s pretty tired, the main thing’s all about recovery, so I’ll get back to the room and rest the legs as soon as possible. It’s tough to race a day after a race but that’s triathlon, and everybody’s in the same boat, so it’s gonna be tough on everyone, so the guy that can handle it is the toughest.”

“I’m very surprised by my form at the moment,” he said.

Other finalists for Sunday’s race include Alessandro Fabian (ITA), Jelle Geens (BEL), Sean Jefferson (USA), Conor Murphy (IRL) and Andrea Secchiero (ITA).