Israel and Kazakhstan claimed the junior individual titles at the Europe Triathlon Junior Cup in Izvorani, Romania, while the home nation delighted the local crowd by securing gold in the Mixed Relay.

Junior Men

Israel's Raz Nevjelik produced a superb run to claim victory, crossing the line seven seconds ahead of Italy's Davide Faldini.

After entering T2 in 15th position, Nevjelik stormed through the field with the fastest run split of the day (7:37) to secure both his first Europe Triathlon Junior Cup podium and his maiden gold medal.

Faldini held off Great Britain's William Pridden by just three seconds to take silver, recording both the second-fastest run split and the second-fastest T1 of the race. Pridden was the quickest athlete through T2 but was unable to match the pace of Nevjelik and Faldini over the closing stages, settling for bronze.

The silver medal marked Faldini's first podium at Junior Cup level after difficult outings in Tabor and Carole, while Pridden also celebrated his first Junior Cup medal. Having recorded a DNF in his previous race, the Brit will be pleased to bounce back with a podium finish in only his seventh career Junior Cup start and just his second race of the season.

Junior Women

Kazakhstan's Diana Yerzhanova also claimed victory by seven seconds, using a powerful run to secure gold after recording the joint-fastest 2.5km run split of the day.

Yerzhanova exited the swim in 10th place but gained valuable time with a fast first transition before remaining in contention throughout the bike leg. Once onto the run, she capitalised on her strength over the final 2.5km to pull away from Romania's Tünde Georgiana Crișan and seal an impressive victory.

Her consistency across all three disciplines earned the Kazakh athlete her first Europe Triathlon Junior Cup gold medal, adding to the Junior Asian Championship title she won earlier this year.

The home crowd had plenty to celebrate as Crișan claimed the silver medal in 35:48, finishing just two seconds ahead of Italy's Alice Ventre.

Ventre recorded the fastest bike split and shared the quickest run split of the day, but she was unable to overcome the deficit created in the swim after exiting the water in the final third of the field. Nevertheless, the bronze medal marked her first podium of the season after finishing just outside the top 30 in Carole, while also giving Italy a second medal following Faldini's silver in the men's race.

Mixed Relay

Romania capped a memorable weekend by claiming gold in the Mixed Relay, stopping the clock in 1:34:31 to finish 25 seconds ahead of Kazakhstan.

Turkey completed the podium, while Bulgaria finished fourth to round out the classified teams.

Full results can be found here. 

Photo: dtd.photography