This was one of the simple days in which the capture of the world title proved more a coronation than a battle. After winning the World Cross Triathlon Championships, Michele Bonacina (ITA) returned to Pallarenda Park to add the World Cross Duathlon crown to his growing collection. He took the lead in the opening run of the day and did not look back from there.
“I’m so happy, said Bonacina after the race. “This one was so hard. Without the swim I knew that there are good runners here so I tried to stay at the front with them.”
Behind Bonacina, who took a 38 second lead into the first changeover, Eric Anel Acosta Tuñon (PAN) and Sebastian Carabin (BEL) were the next quickest in the opening run. Carabin in particular had started well but unfortunately took a wrong turn on the run which put him behind Bonacina. Meanwhile, the bronze medallist at the World Cross Triathlon Championships earlier in the week, Benjamin Forbes (AUS), found himself mid-pack with a deficit of almost 90 seconds to make up to Bonacina. His challenge was a stern one for he had to out-split the race leader by a greater margin than he had in the cross triathlon and then hold him off in the second run having been beaten in the first. Nevertheless, Forbes was very much in the mix for the race for silver.
Up front, Bonacina carved through the mountain bike course like a knife through butter. However, in a slightly unexpected twist, he did not arrive in T2 alone. Carabin had closed the gap on the bike while Forbes had also made up ground with the quickest bike split of the day (48:52) and was a stone’s throw behind. It therefore came to the final 3.5km run to settle matters. Bonacina’s sharpness in transition renewed his lead and he heaped the pressure on his training partner Carabin.
Taking the final run out hard proved a fruitful strategy and Bonacina ran through to take gold and his second world title of the week. His time of 12:14 was a full 25 seconds faster than Carabin and handed him a winning margin of 27 seconds.
Carabin took silver but was a little disappointed in the aftermath. “I made a mistake in the first run lap,” he explained. “It was not the same as the tri course and I turned right and then I had to go back and instead of being first I was last so I had to come back.” Although he caught Bonacina, by the final run “I was already in the red and he was going really fast and I couldn’t follow.”
Forbes then took a second bronze medal of the week. Aside from being satisfied with his performance, he found a novelty of his own in the format. “Coming into it I was pretty excited. I had literally never ridden a bike after a run. I didn’t even do it in training, it’s my first duathlon. So I was really excited to feel the difference with it and I think I prefer it! It says something about my swimming!”
Meanwhile, Ryno Owen (RSA) finished 7th overall and first in the U23 ranks to claim a second World U23 title of the week.
