With half the team claiming the maximum 6pt haul because of the margin of their victories, Europe eventually ran out 15pt winners with 53pts to Team International\u2019s 38pts. Team USA had a day to forget with just 22.5pts as they failed to register a single win.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> Over a 2km swim, 80km cycle and 18km run in Slovakia, the momentum was set from the first three-way matchup, when Daniela Ryf<\/a><\/strong> posted the fastest women\u2019s time of the day as she tore away from Olympic champion Flora Duffy<\/a><\/strong> to score a maximum for Europe.<\/p>\n Team International fought back briefly thanks to thumping wins from Australia\u2019s Ashleigh Gentle and Canada\u2019s Paula Findlay<\/strong><\/a> in the next two match-ups.<\/p>\n But captains\u2019 pick Nicola Spirig<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 six years to the day since picking up Olympic silver in Rio<\/a><\/strong>\u00a0\u2013 returned another maximum and kicked off a run of four successive match wins for Europe, with Holly Lawrence<\/a><\/strong>, Anne Haug<\/strong><\/a> and then Kristian Blummenfelt<\/strong><\/a> all storming to bonus point victories.<\/p>\n Blummenfelt, the Ironman and Olympic champion, was PTO-ranked No 1 going into the event and justified that position by setting the fastest men\u2019s time of the day of 3:09:19, defeating New Zealand\u2019s Commonwealth Games silver medallist<\/a><\/strong> Hayden Wilde<\/a><\/strong> in the process.<\/p>\n While Europe had victory in their grasp by this point, there was at least some drama in Match 8 as Team International\u2019s Lionel Sanders<\/a> <\/strong>and USA\u2019s Sam Long<\/strong><\/a> overhauled a big deficit to Sam Laidlow, and were then involved in a sprint finish that saw Sanders take the tape.<\/p>\n Magnus Ditlev restored Europe\u2019s ascendency with another maximum in Match 9, and while Australian Aaron Royle took down two-time Ironman champion Patrick Lange of Germany in Match 10, Europe\u2019s Gustav Iden<\/strong><\/a> and Daniel Baekkegard both romped home in the final two contests to wrap-up a resounding defence of the trophy.<\/p>\n Team Internationals had been billed as putting up a potential challenge to the hosts, and at least avoided the ignominy of the Broken Spokes trophy \u2013 awarded for finishing last \u2013 which they had to stomach in 2021<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n There were only two Britons on show for Team Europe this year, with PTO-ranked No 4 Kat Matthews<\/strong><\/a> alongside captains\u2019 pick Lawrence, who was raised in Somerset and is now based in California.<\/p>\n Lawrence renewed her rivalry with Australian Ellie Salthouse<\/a><\/strong> and reversed the fortunes from a crash and third-place finish in 2021, with Jocelyn McCauley splitting the pair. Matthews couldn\u2019t live with Findlay but did manage to hold off Skye Moench to take second in Match 3.<\/p>\n <\/p><\/div> <\/section> It didn\u2019t matter though as Europe continued to plunder the opposition, finishing 10.5pts better than last year in a comprehensive display.<\/p>\n \u201cDefending a title is much harder than winning the first one,\u201d said European team co-captain Normann Stadler. \u201cOn paper we were the strongest, but this year\u2019s races looked closer. But the first race with Daniela against Flora Duffy was amazing and the start for a good day.\u201d<\/p>\n Team International skipper Erin Baker said: \u201cThe team did brilliantly and the wins were fantastic but everyone put everything into it. But give it all to Europe, they were amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n Top image credit: PTO<\/strong><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n By Tim Heming Published: Saturday, 20 August 2022 at 12:00 am Team Europe ruthlessly defended the Collins Cup in Samorin, winning eight of the 12 matches as Team International and Team USA struggled to come to terms with the calibre of athlete the home side had at their disposal. With half the team claiming the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":16763,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"4"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/team-europe-retain-collins-cup-with-commanding-victory.jpg",1500,1000,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/team-europe-retain-collins-cup-with-commanding-victory-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/team-europe-retain-collins-cup-with-commanding-victory-300x200.jpg",300,200,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/team-europe-retain-collins-cup-with-commanding-victory-768x512.jpg",768,512,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/team-europe-retain-collins-cup-with-commanding-victory-1024x683.jpg",800,534,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/team-europe-retain-collins-cup-with-commanding-victory.jpg",1500,1000,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/47\/2022\/08\/team-europe-retain-collins-cup-with-commanding-victory.jpg",1500,1000,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"By Tim Heming Published: Saturday, 20 August 2022 at 12:00 am Team Europe ruthlessly defended the Collins Cup in Samorin, winning eight of the 12 matches as Team International and Team USA struggled to come to terms with the calibre of athlete the home side had at their disposal. With half the team claiming the…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/16762"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/220triathlon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}A strong start for Team Europe<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Match 8 brings the drama<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>Team Europe take dominant win\u2026 again<\/strong><\/h2>\n
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