Find out the names to watch at this year's World Junior Championships
To kick off the 2026 WTCS Finals week in Pontevedra, the best young triathletes on the planet will come together to determine this year’s World Junior champion. Those who take gold will instantly elevate themselves to a special club in the sport, while there are a couple of names that already look set to establish themselves at the top level in the race to LA 2028.
Over a one-lap 750m swim, a 20km bike with a challenging climb midway through each of the four laps, and a two-lap 5km run all will be settled. Catch the action on TriathlonLive on Thursday 24th September, with the women’s race at 10:15 and the men’s at 11:45 (both CEST), in what will be for most of the 140 athletes starting the biggest race of their careers so far.
Junior Women
There is one athlete that stands out above the rest on either start list, and not simply because she has won consecutive silver medals at this event. Fanni Szalai (HUN) comes into Pontevedra as the only World Cup winner in either field after roaring to gold in Tiszaujavros back in July. She has also impressed on the WTCS stage this year, placing 9th in Hamburg and 13th in London. With her palmarès, Szalai is the clear favourite to take home the gold medal. But there is a catch.
In each of the past two years, Szalai has been denied victory by a French athlete. Indeed, France are searching for a fourth straight World Junior Championships gold and by a fourth different woman. This year, they will be represented by Anouk Rigaud, already a winner at the Europe Junior Cup in Caorle and the silver medallist at the Europe Junior Championships.
History is also on Rigaud’s side. No country can better France’s four women’s World Junior titles since 2009, while Hungary have not experienced a win at the event in the same timeframe. Thus, as part of a set-up that knows how to win this title, and with the ability to do so, no one should discount Rigaud. Moreover, she will not be the only Anouk capable of upsetting Szalai.
Anouk Danna (SUI) comes into Pontevedra as the European Junior champion. To go with that, she has a plethora of Europe Junior Cup wins while she also prevailed on the senior level at the Wels Europe Cup. Her teammate Kimey Casanova (SUI) won the Junior Cup in Wels and placed 3rd at the Europe Junior Championships, handing Switzerland an impressive double punch.
Brooke Rousselle (CAN), the Americas Junior champion, is another to have thrived on the senior stage. The Canadian athlete took home the bronze medal at the Montreal Americas Cup earlier this summer.
In addition, further Continental Junior champions Maja Jeanne Brinkmann (NAM), the Africa’s gold medallist, and Addison Houslip (AUS), the Oceania’s victor, are set to race. Houslip is also a previous victor at the Tiszaujvaros Europe Junior Cup like Szalai having won in 2025.
Elsewhere, Taylor Foster (RSA) is one of the youngest women on the start list but enjoyed a run of success at Africa Junior Cup events earlier this year. Alua Nurmuhamet (KAZ) comes in as one of Asia’s top hopes after winning multiple Asia Junior Cups of her own. And Beate Jansone (LAT) tasted success at both the senior and junior levels already in 2026, with her Baltic title in the former category standing out. The eyes will be on Szalai, though, as Hungary’s rising star looks to make it third time lucky at the World Junior Championships.
Junior Men
Whereas the women’s race has a clear favourite in Szalai, the men’s looks as predictable as a roll of a dice. This is in no small part due to the presence of all five reigning Continental Junior champions as well as a sixth contender with the rare distinction of a senior international win to go with serious junior hardware.
In this group we have Nathan Max Centlivres Chase (NAM), Konosuke Uchida (JPN) and Zahn Spies (AUS), the champions of Africa, Asia and Oceania, respectively. One challenge that they share will be timing a second peak in their seasons. Chases won the Africa Junior title back in February while Uchida and Spies earned their golds in March. To hit the same or even better form over six months later could be trickier than maintaining more recent success.
By contrast, Robi Racine (CAN), the Americas Junior champion, claimed his title in July, while Sebastian Ziekman (LUX), Europe’s top junior, won his championship in August. Both are therefore looking to maintain more recent form.
One athlete that finished behind Ziekman at the Europe Junior Championships in Poland was Austria’s Jelle Kaindl. However, he has one thing none of the five Continental champions have. A win at the senior level this year. Kaindl stunned the field at the Rzeszów Europe Cup and proved it was no flash in the pan by adding two further top-5 finishes at Europe Cups. As the bronze medallist at the Europe Junior Championships too, he deserves to be among the six favourites for this year’s World Junior title.
Of course, there are plenty of other athletes that could rise to the occasion in Pontevedra. Jack Woodberry (AUS) has previously won the Oceania Junior title and powered to gold at the 2025 Tiszaujvaros Europe Junior Cup. Antony Clayton (RSA) was likewise last year’s Africa Junior champion and has won multiple Africa Junior Cups this year. Moreover, Ramazan Ainegov (KAZ) has been a dominant force on the Asia Junior Cup circuit and is the Asia Youth champion.
With Raimundo Vicente San Martín Naranjo (CHI), the South American Junior Games gold medallist, and Lucas Gorril (GBR), the Europe Junior Championships silver medallist, the field only deepens. And then we have the litany of other international race winners.
Among this group, Damian Suarez Couto (ESP), winner of the Quarteria Europe Junior Cup, stands out as one of the home team’s brightest hopes for a medal, while Caleb Wagener (NZL), the 2025 World Junior duathlon champion, is in top form having won the recent Derry Europe Junior Cup. Finally, Leni Remer-Mancini (FRA), the gold medallist at the Caorle Europe Junior Cup, is the sole French man starting and will look to continue a long history of French success at this championships; he will look to make it a third World Junior title in a row for the French men’s team.
