With stacked fields set to race, predicting this year's World U23 champion seems a sure-fire way to be proven wrong
Few things are ever predictable in triathlon (unless your name is Alexis Hanquinquant), but there are not many races that can match the unpredictability of the World U23 Championships. Last year’s races were a testament to that, particularly the women’s which saw numerous lead changes on the run and a desperate sprint for the line on shattered legs between athletes that seemed set to win and down and out barely a kilometre earlier.
One recent trend that might help with some semblance of predictability is the fate of those wearing number 1. Both of last year’s top seeds, Márta Kropkó (HUN) and Marton Kropkó (HUN), ended up on the podium, while the same was true for Zuzana Michalickova (SVK) the year before that. Home hopeful Izan Edo Aguilar (ESP) and America’s Naomi Ruff will therefore hope their race numbers will be good omens, but nothing is a safe bet at the World U23 Championships.
Over the standard distance, a supremely talented field will contest two laps of 750m in the Lerez river, eight technical laps of 5km with some sapping bumps on the bike, and then four 2.5km loops through the old town before arriving at the finish line on the stadium track. The stage is set, and what happens next is anyone’s guess. Catch every twist live on TriathlonLive and YouTube with the women starting at 15.20 (CEST) and the men at 18.20 (CEST).
U23 Women
Ruff has good reason to be optimistic of converting her number 1 seed into a medal for she comes into Pontevedra as the Americas U23 champion. Last year she endured a dramatic end to the World U23 Championship as she collapsed on the blue carpet with the finish line in sight. In a testament to her resilience, she was back on the start line days later to race for the American Mixed U23-Junior Relay. This year, she has made her WTCS debut and broken into the World Cup top-10 and turning a page at these championships is now in her sights.
One major obstacle Ruff faces is the French team. Simply put, there has never been a trio like this at the World U23 Championships. Léa Houart (FRA), Ambre Grasset (FRA) and Ilona Hadhoum (FRA) represent the past three World Junior champions and pose a contrasting set of challenges to Ruff.
Hadhoum and Houart are especially strong at the front end of the race (while being no slouches on the run). Few, meanwhile, can match Grasset’s running speed; she has represented France at the World U20 Cross Country Championships. Grasset also took the silver medal at the Europe Sprint Championship in August, while Houart was only a place behind in 3rd. Look for any one of the trio, then, to convert junior glory into U23 success this week.
Elsewhere, Sidney Clement (CAN) took Americas U23 Championship silver behind Ruff earlier in the summer while Aspen Anderson (AUS) enters as the Oceania U23 Championship silver medallist. Anderson also won the Oceania U23 title over the sprint distance, while Grasset won the European equivalent. Like Grasset, Anderson has experience in international cross country and will be a threat in the third discipline.
Eve Whitaker (GBR) finished just behind Grasset and Houart at the Europe Sprint Championship, earning her the bronze medal in the U23 category. A powerhouse on two wheels, Whitaker might be the likeliest athlete in the field to instigate a breakaway.
Finally, former World Junior champion Jule Behrens (GER) could put herself in the mix. Mexico’s María López Faraudo is among the best runners in the field and showed her class with a recent Europe Cup win in Derry. And Margareta Vrablova (SVK) has shown promising World Cup form lately, including a 6th place finish in Tiszaujvaros, and logged a Europe Cup win of her own in Tata.
U23 Men
When it comes to the men’s race, the game is simple: take a pick from your up-and-coming World Cup medallist. Edo stands at the vanguard of a cohort of athletes to have already made serious waves on the world scene, with each looking to use this week’s event as a launchpad to the WTCS and potentially the LA Olympic Games.
Edo’s World Cup medal came last October in Rome, and he has not slowed in 2026. He placed 13th on his WTCS debut in Yokohama and finished 7th at the Europe Championship over the standard distance.
One athlete that beat him at the Europe Championship was Michael Gar (GBR), who took the silver medal. A World Cup medallist in Miyazaki last autumn, Gar followed that up with a silver medal at the Europe Sprint Championship (in both the senior and U23 categories). The man that vanquished him that day, France’s Milan Lariviere, will also be starting in Pontevedra. Having also won the Holten Europe Cup, Lariviere has not lost an individual international race since May.
Both Gar and Lariviere face challenges from teammates too. Edmonton World Cup winner Solomon Okrafo-Smart (GBR) looks like a coming force on the British team and recently placed 8th on WTCS debut in Weihai. Nils Serre Gehri (FRA), the 2024 World Junior champion and a World Cup medallist in 2025, made an even more head-turning WTCS debut earlier in the summer. At his sole Series appearance so far, he placed an incredible 4th in Hamburg.
In addition, Toby Powers (AUS), another former World Junior Championships medallist, took a major step up this summer with a maiden World Cup medal of his own. Having only recently committed fully to triathlon, he seems set to make leaps and bounds.
One feature of the men’s start list is the absence of an über-runner. With respect to the rapid men set to race, there is no obvious standout individual capable of a race-defining 10km the past two World U23 champions, Oliver Conway (GBR) and David Cantero del Campo (ESP), who were head and shoulders above the rest on the run.
Instead, this a course likelier to play into the hands of an all-rounder, as was the case at the 2023 Pontevedra World U23 Championship when Simon Henseleit (GER) won. Someone like Zalán Hóbor (HUN) or Carter Stuhlmacher (USA) could therefore steal a march in the water. Panagiotis Bitados (GRE) or Pelayo González Turrez (ESP) could make a critical move on the bike. Or someone with no real weaknesses like Blake Bullard (USA) could take control of the entire race.
