The medals at the Tiszaújváros World Cup were decided within the first 10 minutes of the women’s race, but their exact order was only settled following a fantastic run split from Fanni Szalai (HUN) as she powered clear from her two breakaway partners, Taylor Knibb (USA) and Tara Sosinski (AUS), to seal a first ever win on the circuit. Szalai has enjoyed prior success In Tiszaújváros, winning the Europe Junior Cup here previously. Furthermore she came into this race in strong form, having recorded consecutive Europe Cup victories. Yet for an athlete that only made her World Cup debut three months ago, her triumph came as a complete surprise by her own admission. Nevertheless, it is one that will put the rest of the triathlon world on notice.
Szalai, Knibb and Sosinski had warned the rest of the final with their breakaways across Saturday’s two semi-finals, Knibb riding alone in the second while Szalai and Sosinski teamed up in the first. It was therefore no surprise to see them repeat the trick, this time as a trio. Knibb was the first out of the water (9:07 for 750m) and the three arrived in T1 together. And that was that.
Mathilde Gautier (FRA) and Selina Klamt (GER) trailed the leaders before a larger gap opened up to Diana Isakova (AIN), the winner of the first semi-final, who headed up the main chase pack. Meanwhile, WTCS Yokohama winner Tilda Mänsson (SWE) found herself way down the field.
As the front three motored clear, Klamt fought for dear life to jump onto their wheel. As one against three, though, the odds were not in her favour, and she fell back with Gautier and Anja Weber (SUI). At the end of the first lap of eight on the bike, the Isakova group (the third pack on the road) was already 32 seconds down. Behind, Månsson was in the largest pack and already staring down the barrel of a 47 second deficit.
Two laps later, the Isakova group plunged to 56 seconds back. Equally there was hope on the horizon as they merged with the Månsson group shortly after. That hope turned into a slowly deflating balloon that sagged to the floor and then got stomped on repeatedly by the leaders.
The chasers did not help themselves with plenty of tactical riding; with Olympic and world ranking points on the line, 4th offered a valuable result, even if it wasn’t a medal. However nothing should take away from the exemplary work of Knibb, Sosinski and Szalai. By the end of the 20km bike, their advantage had boomed to a massive 2:16.
Sosinski was the quickest in T2 and carried a slight lead onto the run. It did not take long, though, for Szalai to storm into the lead. At the end of the first of the four run laps, Knibb pulled clear of Sosinski but there was no catching Szalai. A 19 second lead became 27 seconds at the midpoint of the run, every step thereafter a coronation. Her 5km split stopped the clock at 16:33, the best of the day and an emphatic finish to a perfect race.
Knibb held on for 2nd place in her first World Cup outing since 2019, while Sosinski claimed a maiden World Cup medal of her own in 3rd. In the parallel race, Isakova managed to take 4th with Danielle Orie (USA) coming home in 5th place. But this race belonged to the overjoyed leaders. Sosinski joked after the race, “swim-bike breakaways are back, baby!”, although the bigger headline is that Fanni Szalai is only getting started.