It was only the second Team World Triathlon gathering of the 2025 season, and the Huatulco World Cup proved to be one of the most successful - and in some of the most difficult circumstances.
With travel disruption of over 48 hours for some members, including new Team Manager Daniel Unger, as a result of Hurricane Erick, preparations were far from ideal. Nevertheless, several stand out performances suggest an exciting LA2028 cycle ahead for the development team that helped ten athletes from nine smaller NFs reach Paris 2024.
The women's race saw Colombia's Carolina Velasquez take the tape in a nail-biter of a sprint finish for her first ever World Cup gold in her most complete performance to date.
Just 30 seconds back was Slovakia's Zuzana Michalickova, out-running the likes of Rosa Tapia and former U23 World Champion Selina Klamt to take sixth place and match her best result at the World Cup level.
Two other new team members were Chile's Daniela Moya (19th), who scored her first World Cup top 20 and Camila Alcala (HON) finished 31st on her World Cup debut, Raquel Solis (CRC) with 32nd.
In the men's race, the story of the day was undoubtedly Cuba's exciting talent Alejandro Rodriguez, who detonated the fastest 5km run of the day to hold off challengers like Aram Penaflor and fellow teammate Diego Moya to win silver in his first ever World Cup. On a mission to get Cuba on the LA 2028 start line, Alejandro will be one to watch over the coming years.
Moya would go on to finish 7th after an issue with his helmet cost precious time in T1 and allowed eventual winner Shachar Sagiv to get away solo.
Also on his team debut was Argentina's young Tiago Munoz, who ran to a career-best 22nd place, Alvaro Campos (CRC) finishing in 24th.
(l-r Camila Alcala, Alejandro Rodriguez, Carolina Velasquez, Diego Moya, Daniela Moya, Tiago Munoz, Zuzana Michalickova, Alvaro Campos, Raquel Solis)
The third Team World Triathlon World Cup of the season will be Valencia on 20 September. Applications for the team will open on 7 July for that race as well as November's Tongyeong World Cup, find more information here.
