By Hans Cleemput
The French athletes are looking forward to a big party on Sunday evening. 'Les Bleus' dominated the men junior race, claiming gold and silver and taking 7th and 8th place as well. It was Raphael Montoya who was the fastest runner of a lead pack of 30 athletes who entered T2 together. The French junior held off Spain's Antonio Serrat in a big sprint in the finish chute. Max Hueber-Moosbrugger secured the bronze medal ten seconds behind his team mate Montoya.
After 750 meters of swimming Mark Dévay from Hungary was first out of the water with only a 6 second gap to two big groups who immediately formed one big lead pack of 30 athletes in the first of three bike laps. The chase pack with among others Irish favorite Constantin Doherty was trailing by 1 minute. The run would be all decisive. Belgium's Erwin Vanderplancke took the lead after the second transition, but he dropped back to 22nd place.
Halfway through the run 4 leaders were battling for the medals but Germany's Lars Lührs dropped off in the second run lap, leaving Spanish junior Antonio Serrat surrounded by the two strong French runners.
Montoya couldn't be more happy with the gold medal after finishing second last year. 'I was hoping to win here as a revanche for my silver medal last year. In the final section of the run the three of us stuck together. Antonio wouldn't let go but I didn't panic and hoped that my sprint would be fast enough. I am really happy with this win. And we're looking forward to a big party for the French gold and silver today, but that will not happen before Sunday evening because first we're focussing on the mixed team relay on Sunday.'
Serrat gave it all in the sprint and he was satisfied with the silver medal. 'This was almost a perfect race. You can try and plan it anyway you want, but on raceday it all needs to come together. The swim was very good and I was counting on a fast run, but the two French athletes were faster. Today Raphael was the strongest athlete in the race, so I need to be satisfied with silver.'