foto Michal Buczynski

The past weekend was another busy chapter for Ukrainian triathlon, with athletes competing on two international fronts — the Europe Triathlon Cup in Olsztyn, Poland, featuring elite and junior races, and the Asia Triathlon Cup in Lianyungang, China. Across both events, Ukrainian athletes fought for valuable ranking points and strong finishes on the international stage.

In Olsztyn, Oleksii Astafiev-Kulish exited the swim in 51st place, trailing the leader by 28 seconds. During the bike leg, he worked in the second chase group, though the gap to the front pack continued to grow. Astafiev-Kulish clocked 17:11 on the run and finished 60th overall in 58:44 in what was his first start of the season.

Yeva Soroka came out of the water 44 seconds behind the leaders but managed to stay with the chase pack on the bike. A solid 17:23 run split carried the Ukrainian to 22nd place in 1:01:35. Soroka earned 56 World Ranking points and climbed into the top 400 of the rankings, now sitting 384th overall. Final race results.

Ukraine’s junior squad in Poland featured Zakhar Tsivkovskyi, Illia Honcharuk, Markiian Harmatii, Arsen Adamov and Matvii Malysh in the men’s field, while Dana Soroka, Amina Marchenko and Mariia Ivashchenko represented the women.

Zakhar Tsivkovskyi produced the best result among the Ukrainian juniors. The young athlete delivered a composed race, stayed with the large chase pack and crossed the line 14th in 56:48. His strongest segment came on the bike, where he posted one of the fastest splits among athletes in the second group. Tsivkovskyi made his debut in the European Junior Ranking in 48th place with 145 points.

Among the junior women, Dana Soroka led the Ukrainian performances with an impressive eighth-place finish. Soroka exited the swim alongside the leaders, rode in the chase group and recorded the ninth-fastest run split of the day. She completed the course in 1:03:30, earned 232 junior ranking points and climbed to third place in the standings.

Illia Honcharuk finished 43rd in 59:29, while Markiian Harmatii followed closely in 46th with 59:49. Arsen Adamov took 55th place and Matvii Malysh finished 59th. In the women’s race, Amina Marchenko placed 27th and Mariia Ivashchenko finished 28th. Final race results.

In the National Federations ranking, Ukraine currently sits 13th with 841 points (Soroka — 672, Tsivkovskyi — 145, Bezlepkin — 24).
Meanwhile, in Lianyungang, China, another Asia Triathlon Cup event saw Sofiya Pryyma, Vitalii Vorontsov and Serhii Kostenko continue their push for World Ranking points. Vorontsov returned to the venue where he finished fourth one year ago.

Serhii Kostenko exited the swim in 41st place, while Vitalii Vorontsov was 59th. Trailing the leaders by 57 seconds and 1 minute 15 seconds respectively, both Ukrainians continued the race in the chase groups. Vorontsov produced a powerful 15:13 run split and finished 25th, just over two minutes behind the winner. Kostenko crossed the line in 37th place.

In the World Ranking, Vorontsov climbed six positions to 276th overall, while Kostenko gained 17 places and now sits 517th in the standings.

Sofiya Pryyma delivered one of the strongest races of her season. The Ukrainian exited the swim in 25th place, 39 seconds behind the leader, before bridging up to the front group on the bike with the fastest cycling split of the entire women’s field — 35:12. Pryyma entered T2 alongside the race leaders and remained in contention for top positions until the final stages of the run. She eventually finished eighth, only 31 seconds behind the winner. The result earned Pryyma 153 World Ranking points and lifted her 55 places up the rankings to 231st overall. Final race results.

Pryyma, Vorontsov and Kostenko will continue their Asian campaign this coming weekend at the Asia Triathlon Cup in Taizhou, China.

At the same time, the Soroka sisters are set to compete at the Europe Triathlon Cup in Rzeszów, Poland, while in Mamaia, Romania, Ukraine will field a strong squad at the World Triathlon Development Regional Cup. Oleksii Astafiev-Kulish, Ivan Shevchenko, Fedir Bezlepkin, Arsen Adamov, Zakhar Tsivkovskyi, Yehor Fokov and Maksym Nesvat are all expected to start, with Sofiia Bondarenko representing Ukraine in the women’s race.