McMahon takes sixth place

McMahon's performance bodes well for the future Keystone Archive

Swiss athlete Brigitte McMahon has come sixth in the European triathlon championships in the Hungarian town of Györ.

After having finished the distances of 1,5km swimming, 40km cycling and 10km running, the 35-year-old Swiss triathlete finished 49 seconds behind the winner, Kathleen Smet from Belgium on Friday.

McMahon, who only gave birth to her second child one year ago, was pleased with her performance. “I am quite happy about my swimming and cycling. However, my running could have been a bit better,” she said after the race.

McMahon won Olympic gold at Sydney 2000.

Leanda Cave from Great Britain came second in the race and Christiane Pilz from Germany finished in third place.

Last year’s junior world champion Swiss athlete Nicols Spirig finished 14th.

Men fail

The Swiss men were far less successful than McMahon. With their leader Reto Hug, absent, the best of them over the Olympic distance on Saturday was Dominik Rechsteiner, 27th and nearly four minutes behind the winner, Ivan Rana of Spain.

Two other Swiss finished the race, Andreas Grütter 29th, and Didier Brocard 35th. Mathias Hecht, Michael Schwarz and Mikael Aigroz all abandoned during the race.

swissinfo with agencies