The serious business will begin tomorrow but for now we are left wondering what, if any, toll the games played in today’s semi-finals at the Tiszaujvaros World Cup have taken on the pre-race favourites. Breakaways were commonplace on a day that rewarded hard work early, allowing the leaders to ease up a little on the run. That said, in frankly pulverising heat the simple act of running was enough to drain everyone that raced.
Read on to find out what went down across the five races, who made the finals and how the contenders are shaping up. The women’s final will kick things off tomorrow at 15:45 (CEST), with the men to follow from 17:15, and every minute will be shown live on TriathlonLive. If today is a bellwether for what is to come, you won’t want to miss a moment.
Women
Semi-final 1
Tara Sosinksi (AUS) and Fanni Szalai (HUN) got the afternoon off to a rapid start as they broke clear in the 750m swim. Sosinski came away with the better swim time (9:12) and was a whole 15 seconds quicker than the third athlete out of the water, Switzerland’s Anja Weber.
While Sosinksi and Szalai shot up the road, a pack slowly sorted themselves out behind. Weber and Mathilde Gautier (FRA) were at the front from the start, as was Diana Isakova (RUS), while Danielle Orie (USA) and Selina Klamt (GER) were among the others to establish themselves in the group. However, as the chase pack lacked cohesion, Sosinski and Szalai extended their lead to a minute with the top bike splits of the semi-final (29:47 for Szalai).
The lead duo cruised through the 5km run together with qualification essentially sewn up. Isakova dropped the best run split by over 30 seconds (17:27) to cross the line first late on; based on her medal here in 2024, she will likely have more in the tank. Then, behind Sosinski and Szalai, Orie recovered from a slower T2 to ease into the final, while Klamt used a late surge to test her legs and relegate the American into 5th place.
Semi-final 2
With top-14 of the 22 starters in each semi-final guaranteed passage to the final (with two lucky losers to be added), there was no need to come in all guns blazing today. Apparently someone forgot to tell Taylor Knibb (USA).
The WTCS gold medallist, in her first World Cup appearance since 2019, was the top swimmer (9:14) and when she realised no one was with her coming into T1 decided to continue her solo endeavour. The day’s top bike split followed (29:22 for 20km) as did the best run split of the semi-final (17:53). Knibb therefore came into the finish with a commanding 74 second lead over her closest rival. On this showing, any configuration of a Knibb-Sosinski-Szalai breakaway will probably end up on the podium tomorrow.
Among those hoping to deny such a breakaway (or even infiltrate it) will be previous Tiszaujvaros winner Tilda Månsson (SWE). The Swedish athlete was the next woman to finish, with Ilaria Zane (ITA) and Brea Roderick (NZL) close behind, after making it into T2 as part of a ten-athlete chase pack. With the pressure largely off, none of the chasers committed too much energy to the run and all the qualifiers will hope to exploit that fact tomorrow.
Sadly there was to be no place in the final for World Cup winner Carina Reicht (AUT) who has been nursing an injury. The Austrian athlete was in visible discomfort as she battled to finish the run outside of the qualification slots. View the start list for the women’s final here.
Men
Semi-final 1
As dry runs go, the first semi-final was all the three-time Tiszaujvaros World Cup winner Csongor Lehmann (HUN) could have asked for. In a controlled performance, he was the first man across the line alongside Chase McQueen (USA) and laid out the template for how he plans to win tomorrow (spoiler alert: it is the same way as last year).
Lehmann and McQueen were led out of the water by Jules Rethoret (FRA), who clocked a brisk 8:27 for the 750m. They, in tandem with Gergő Dobi (HUN), formed a breakaway group that soon buried any notion of the chase group catching them. Rethoret and McQueen would share the top split of the semi-final (26:47) as they earned a lead that bloated out to well over a minute. No one would come near them by the end of the race.
Things were a little more fraught behind. Nine men from each of the three semi-finals were to qualify directly for the final, with the three fastest non-qualifiers being added. In the ten-man chase pack, the maths was clear; half of them were at risk of missing out.
Jaspar Ortfeld (GER) ultimately crossed in 5th place, the best of the chasers, with Pelayo González Turrez (ESP) and Paul Georgenthum (FRA) on his hip. Carol Popa (ROU) was the last man automatically in from 9th place, only 3 seconds ahead of New Zealand’s Henry McMecking.
The story of the semi-final, though, was Lehmann’s dominance. A sixth straight win on home turf beckons, and with several gears clearly left in reserve, it will be a tough ask to deny him.
Semi-final 2
Another four-man breakaway set the tone in semi-final 2. Once again, a French athlete dictated things in the water, but Tom Lerno was eventually edged out by Hungary’s Márk Dévay. To continue the eerie similarities with the first semi-final, they were joined by an American athlete (Carter Stuhlmacher) and another Hungarian (Zalán Hóbor). However, two of the top swimmers, Lehel Hóbor (HUN) and Gergely Kiss (HUN), did not stick with the leaders.
The lead quartet defended a more modest advantage over the chasers and the gap hovered at around 30 seconds for most of the 20km bike. Once onto the run, the leaders then did enough to safely ensure their spots in the final with Lerno taking the tape first.
From the chase pack, Lucas Cambresy (LUX) was the top runner (15:45 for 5km) as he nicked 4th place, some 35 seconds behind Lerno. Luke Schofield (AUS), Eric Diener (GER), Mateo Vidal (FRA) and Alexis Lherieau (SUI) then rounded out the top-9, with Lherieau pipping Benedikt Bettin (GER) by only 2 seconds.
Semi-final 3
With the last race of the day, we finally saw a large front pack come together; this time, the lead group consisted of a whole seven men! Estonia’s Gregor Rasva topped the swim charts in 8:39 and was closely followed by Pablo Isotton (FRA) and Joshua Bird (CAN), although the latter did not remain in the lead pack.
Zalán Trungel-Nagy (HUN), previously a medallist at the Tiszaujvaros Europe Junior Cup, made the leading seven, as did Denis Kolobrodov (RUS), Tayler Reid (NZL), Gergő Gyula Soós (HUN) and the top cyclist Zsombor Dévay (HUN). With the group working well together, they defended a half-minute gap over their chasers.
Interestingly, they were pursued by a trio of athletes: Nathan Grayel (FRA), Till Kramp (GER) and Jarno Pousada Troitiño (ESP). One would miss out on automatic qualification behind the leaders, setting up a tense finish.
A 10 second penalty was not enough to stop Rasva from taking 1st place in the semi-final. The young Estonian will certainly be among the cohort of men looking to make any Lehmann-led breakaway tomorrow. Further back, Kramp had a strong run to lift himself into 5th place while Grayel secured the final automatic place in 9th. There was to be heartbreak for Pousada, however, as Bettin and McMecking claimed the lucky loser slots alongside Kiss, leaving the 10th-placed Spaniard out in the cold. View the final start list here.