Cuba's Marcos Alejandro Fernández González and Costa Rica's Valeria Arce Núñez claimed the men's and women's titles at the 2026 World Triathlon Development Regional Cup Asunción on 8 August, in a race that doubled as a key milestone for the young athletes preparing for the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games this November.
The sprint-distance race in Paraguay's capital brought together emerging talent from across the Americas, several of them already carrying the added motivation of representing the continent at the Youth Olympic Games in Senegal later this year. In the elite men's race, Fernández González stopped the clock at 58:22, holding off a fast-closing Bautista Arbizu of Argentina by just five seconds. Venezuela's Aaron Jesús Hernández Morales completed the podium in 58:32, with Costa Rica's Gerald Rojas Carvajal fourth and Argentina's Santino Calderón Lucoratolo rounding out the top five.
Seventeen athletes crossed the finish line, with Barbados' Luke McIntyre forced to retire on the bike leg.
Valeria Arce Núñez led the women's race from the swim through to the finish, clocking 1:07:05 to take the title ahead of Ecuador's Manuela Ortega Arteaga and Argentina's Federica Carleo, who completed the podium in 1:08:18. Colombia's Catalina Moreno Velasco finished fourth, with Arce's little sister Victoria Arce Nuñez fifth, giving Costa Rica two athletes inside the top five. Paraguay's Ana Victoria Portillo Prono was the leading home athlete, finishing sixth in front of her own crowd.
A stop on a much longer journey
The Asunción race was never just a single day's competition. It formed part of the 2026 Pan American Triathlon Development Camp, an initiative bringing together 23 athletes and 8 coaches from 11 national federations: Argentina, Barbados, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Puerto Rico, Uruguay and Venezuela, for nearly three weeks of training, competition and education across two cities.
Running from 6 to 24 August and led by Javier Mon Fernández, World Triathlon's Development Coordinator for the Americas, the camp combines high-performance training in swimming, cycling and running with strength conditioning, physiological testing, and workshops on sports nutrition, sport psychology, anti-doping education and training planning.
The programme is built around two competitive anchors: the Development Regional Cup in Asunción and, next week, the Development Regional Cup in Lima, Peru, giving the group a genuine block of international racing to measure their progress against. Several of the athletes training and racing through this camp have already secured their selection to represent their National Federations at the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games in November.
Having lined up in Asunción, they will now travel with the rest of the group to Lima to continue their final preparations before heading to Senegal, giving the region's Youth Olympic hopefuls a rare, extended window of shared training and competition ahead of the Games.
World Triathlon President Antonio Arimany highlighted the value of programmes like the Pan American Triathlon Development Camp in supporting National Federations as they build their next generation of athletes. 'Development camps and regional cups like this one in Asunción are exactly the kind of investment our sport needs,' said Arimany. 'They give National Federations the tools and the international exposure to grow their young athletes, and they give those athletes the racing experience and the belief that they can compete on the world stage. Seeing so many of our Youth Olympic Games hopefuls training and racing together here, ahead of Dakar 2026, is a great example of what this development pathway is all about.'
Líber García, President of Americas Triathlon, echoed that pride in the group brought together in Asunción. 'I could not be prouder of this team, the athletes and the coaches who have shown such commitment over these weeks,' said García. 'None of this would have been possible without everyone involved in organising and hosting this camp, and I want to thank each of them for helping us give our young athletes this opportunity to grow together ahead of Lima and Dakar 2026.'
World Triathlon and Americas Triathlon extend their thanks to the Paraguay Olympic Committee and to PanAm Sports for their support in making the Pan American Triathlon Development Camp possible. Their backing, together with that of the National Olympic Committee of Peru and the participating National Federations, has been instrumental in giving this group of young athletes and coaches an unprecedented opportunity to train, race and grow together.
The camp and its athletes now turn their attention to Lima, where the Development Regional Cup next week will offer the next test on the road to the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games and beyond.