Marten van Riel, centre, won gold today ahead of Alex Yee, left, and Aurelien Raphael, right ©SLT Arena Games

Belgium's Marten van Riel claimed a second Super League Triathlon Arena Games title this season in Rotterdam with a perfect score after three rounds of competition at the Zwemcentrum.

Powered by virtual platform Zwift and featuring a mix of virtual and real-life racing. the competition was held in three stages with different orders - swim-run-bike, run-bike-swim and bike-swim run.

Each stage awards the winner 10 points.

Interviews with the triathletes were held in between the stages too.

Each stage had a 200 metres swim leg, a three kilometres cycle and a one kilometre run.

A traditional triathlon consists of a 1.5km swim, a 40km cycle and a 10km run.

The competition was held on treadmills and exercise bikes, as well as an in-person swimming pool.

Van Riel claimed the men's first stage win with a pedal sprint to the line with Portugal's Vasco Vilaca, while Britain's Alex Yee took the bronze.

On stage two, Van Riel finished with a strong swim to hold off the likes of Yee and France's Aurelien Raphael, and on the final stage, had a strong enough lead after a strong swim and cycle to hold off accomplished runner Yee on the final leg.

Van Riel took a maximum 30 points, with Yee winning overall silver with 23 points and Raphael taking bronze with 22.


Britain's Sophie Coldwell won an incredibly tight contest with compatriot Beth Potter to claim the women's gold medal by just a point.

On stage one, Potter, who won the women's competition in London, took the 10 points after strong swim and run legs, further extending her lead to 10 seconds over Coldwell and 20 to Dutch triathlete Maya Kingma.

However, Coldwell would win the second stage, but only after overtaking Potter and last leg leader Anna Godoy of Spain in the 200m swim.

Potter claimed second and Godoy finished third.

With Potter and Coldwell now level on points, whoever out of the two was the first to finish looked to have the title in the bag.

After a nullified cycle leg, Coldwell once again showed her quality in the pool ahead of the Scot to pull out an advantage on the run.

Despite Potter's recent heroics on the road, she could not overturn the gap made by Coldwell who virtually crossed the line first and claimed the overall gold with 29 points. 

Potter was second on 28 ahead of Godoy who finished with 21 points.