Extraordinary heat defined the weekend’s racing, not least in Tiszaujvaros which peaked at 38 Celsius (just over 100 Fahrenheit for our friends across the Atlantic), and in such conditions the test became one of obstinance and survival as much as speed. Yet despite the heat across continents, many found a way to produce brilliant performances, resulting in World Cup wins, World Para Series triumphs and head-turning results by the potential stars of tomorrow. Find out all that happened in this week’s Monday Morning Mix.
Montreal World Para Series
Friday’s rain gave way to a glorious day of racing on Saturday, and it was under bright skies that we were treated to the single most thrilling Para triathlon race of the season. Read on to find out what we mean, because there is a good chance you won’t find something like this for quite some time.
Men’s winners
- PTWC: Giuseppe Romele (ITA)
- PTS2: Wim De Paepe (BEL)
- PTS3: Cedric Denuziere (FRA)
- PTS4: Alexis Hanquinquant (FRA)
- PTS5: Chris Hammer (USA)
- PTVI: Sam Harding (AUS)
Throughout the men’s categories, there were multiple great showdowns, such as Harding’s victory against Oscar Kelly (GBR). Kelly led the 750m swim (9:46 to Harding’s 9:48), before the Australian took the lead on the bike. Harding never quite got away but then had enough to out-split Kelly on the run to win by 42 seconds.
Things were even tighter in the PTWC class, even if they did not seem so at first. Romele came out on top against World Para Series winner Howie Sanborn (USA) after the American threatened to pull off the most almighty comeback. Romele had the best swim (10:47) and came into T1 almost 3 minutes ahead of Sanborn. But the American still had a trick to play. A monster bike split, in which he clocked 31:39 to Romele’s 34:21, gobbled up the gap and Sanborn subsequently out-split Romele on the run for good measure. He ultimately ran out of road, however, as Romele saw out a nerve-jangling 5km to win by 26 seconds.
Elsewhere, De Paepe broke a run of silver medals (coming at the World Championships in Wollongong, the World Para Series in Yokohama and the European Championships in Tarragona) with a long-awaited gold. His last win actually came in Montreal a year ago but now the former world champion can move forwards towards this year’s World Championships with a boost in his form.
Finally, Hanquinquant did Hanquinquant things, but the PTS4 race was notable insofar that the field is closing the gap. The Paralympic champion did not have the top split in any of the three disciplines (admittedly, he was the second fastest in each), but the signs are there that the rest of the world are hauling themselves up to his extraordinary level.
Women’s winners
Have you ever seen a tie in Para triathlon? In one of the women’s categories in Montreal, we were treated with one of the closest finishes we have ever seen.
- PTWC: Kendall Gretsch (USA)
- PTS2: Asumi Yasuda (JPN)
- PTS3: Atalia Nevo (ISR)
- PTS4: Danielle Cummings (USA)
- PTS5: Grace Norman (USA)
- PTVI: Susana Rodriguez (ESP)
In the PTWC race, 2024 world champion Gretsch had a titanic battle against Jessica Ferreira (BRA). As a H2 classified athlete, Gretsch started 2:51 after Ferreira, a H1 classified athlete. (By contrast both Romele and Sanborn are classified as H1s.) The American made up 81 seconds on the swim, 12 in T1, another 82 on the bike, and then eked out 7 more in T2. Yet upon starting the run, the Tokyo Paralympic champion still had 30 seconds to close.
It’s not clear if those watching actually breathed in the final kilometre, so close had the margin become, but Gretsch made it at the absolute end, nudging over the line first as she and Ferreira finished with identical times. View the full results here.
Montreal Americas Cup
The fun continued in Montreal with the latest Americas Cup event of the season. Gold in the men’s race went to Chile’s Daniel Ubilla Sabada after he faced down opponents from all directions over the 5km run.
The best efforts of Hayden Woodrow (CAN) to break up the field in the water came to naught. After the Canadian put 12 seconds into his closest rival over 750m he was swept up in a main pack that contained over half the field. On a fast course, opportunities to break things up were scarce, and so it came down to the final discipline. Cole Jamieson (USA), Angel Yael Yépez Meza (MEX), Theo Marti (LUX) and Lukas Vadeika (CAN) hung with Ubilla the longest, but when the Chilean youngster went, no one had an answer. Yépez would claim the silver medal, 6 seconds behind Ubilla, while Jamieson placed 3rd a further 3 seconds back.
Meanwhile, Annie Fuller (USA) claimed the first win (and indeed first medal) of her international career as she came through a similarly tactical race on the run. In a similar fashion to Woodrow in the men’s race, Canadian athlete Kira Gupta-Baltazar tried to shake things up in the water (clocking 9:46 for the fastest split), but to no avail. Once again, over half the field came back together on the bike.
On the run, three women separated themselves from the rest, with Fuller joined by Béatrice Filion (CAN) and Brooke Rousselle (CAN), both of whom represented Canada at last year’s World Junior Championships. The trio remained in touch for most of the run, but Fuller had the best finish to grab the gold by 3 seconds. Filion then denied her younger teammate to secure the silver medal, her first at the senior level, while Rousselle could take plenty from a first ever international medal herself. View the full results here.
Wels Europe Cup
In a battle of rising French talents, Martin Hubner (FRA) overpowered World Junior champion Tristan Douche (FRA) over the sprint distance in Austria. Neither athlete fared particularly well in the water; Douche emerged in 30th place while Hubner was all the way down in 50th as Quarteira Europe Junior Cup winner Damian Suarez Couto (ESP) led the way.
The pack soon came together over the 20km bike, though, paving the way for Douche and Hubner to ready themselves for the 5km run. Neither were daunted by the vastly more experienced men around them as they left T2 and, having proven his race-winning credentials in Wollongong, Douche moved well through the opening kilometre. Last time out, he claimed a silver medal at the Torremolinos Europe Cup and gold was clearly on his mind.
Yet it was not to be. Hubner has long since been regarded as one of the fastest runners ever seen in the French junior system, and he showcased his abilities with a rip-roaring 14:24 5km split. Douche resisted him for as long as he could but could not keep up at the end and settled for silver by 4 seconds. Bronze then went to Maximue Fluri (SUI).
Another up-and-coming star whizzed to victory in the women’s race as Anouk Danna (SUI) dispatched the field with aplomb. Already a winner of the Quarteira and Olsztyn Europe Junior Cups (and a medallist in Torremolinos like Douche), Danna came into Wels in sparkling form.
The main pack consisted of almost the entire field and in hindsight, the critical move to deny Danna had to come much earlier. As it was, the Swiss athlete blasted a 16:08 5km, the fastest of the day by almost half a minute, to cruise to a first senior win. Considering Danna will only age out of the junior ranks in 2028, she will be a name to watch in the post-LA cycle and beyond.
While Danna bossed things at the front, two Australian athletes duked it out for silver. Matilda Offord (AUS), in her ongoing comeback from a horror bike crash, had medalled on her international return in Japan, but faced former Oceania Junior champion and World Cross Country Championships racer Aspen Anderson (AUS).
Only 6 seconds would separate the two women at the line as Offord eventually found a way to punch clear and take the silver medal. Anderson could nonetheless be content with a first Europe Cup medal to go with the Oceania Cup hardware she collected earlier this year. View the full results here.
Wels Europe Junior Cup
Gaspard Chabanel (FRA) took the win in the junior men’s race in Wels, beating Luxembourg’s Sebastian Ziekman and French teammate Martin Nedellec into 2nd and 3rd place. A big pack rode together throughout the 20km bike, laying the foundations for a running race to settle matters.
It was here that Chabanel uncorked a 14:36 5km, a split that would not have looked out of place in the senior race. That handed him the gold by 15 seconds on a successful visit to Wels for the French men’s team.
The Swiss junior women then tried to match Danna’s senior win with gold and silver ultimately being decided between Kimey Casanova (SUI) and Aimie Decrausaz (SUI). Their races, however, could scarcely have been more different.
Casanova rode as part of a six-woman breakaway alongside bronze medallist Léa Reviglio (FRA). Decrausaz remained stranded in the main group a considerable way behind. Yet Decrausaz would out-split Casanova by 1:50 over 5km thanks to a phenomenal 15:40 split; the next fastest athlete managed a 17:17 and no one in the senior race came within 15 seconds of Decrausaz’s time.
Ultimately, Decrausaz fell just short as Casanova’s bold racing style was rewarded with the win by 13 seconds. With both being born in 2010, and Danna to consider too, Switzerland’s next generation could prove to be formidable. View the full results here.
Tiszaujvaros World Cup
Three women animated Sunday’s final in Tiszaujvaros as Taylor Knibb (USA), Tara Sosinski (AUS) and Fanni Szalai (HUN) thundered clear with a swim-bike breakaway that put over 2 minutes into the chase. With that kind of lead, no one troubled them for the rest of the race, and it was Szalai that had the best run (indeed of anyone in the field) to record a first ever World Cup win. Knibb then came through to take the silver medal, while there was also a first World Cup podium for Sosinski as she wrapped up 3rd place.
A breakaway also defined the men’s race, however the reigning Tiszy champion Csongor Lehmann (HUN) nearly missed out. The home star was 13 seconds back out of the water but managed to join the five at the front after a big surge alongside Pelayo Gonzalez Turrez (ESP). Over the 20km bike, the leading seven gained over 40 seconds on the chasers.
As has been the case at every edition this decade, Lehmann ran away to the gold. Tom Lerno (FRA) maximised his opportunity in the breakaway to continue a streak of French medals in Tiszaujvaros by taking 2nd place. And Gonzalez saw his efforts on the bike pay off with a maiden World Cup medal in 3rd. View the full results here.
Tiszaujvaros Europe Junior Cup
After Saturday’s semi-finals whittled down the field in a similar manner to the World Cup, Sunday morning got underway with a pair of electrifying super sprint contests. And with Hungarian athletes taking gold and silver in both the junior men’s and junior women’s events, it was a great day for the home team.
Petra Bán (HUN) got the women’s race off to a flying start, leading out the 500m swim with Jázmin Kropkó (HUN) and Hanna Månsson (SWE) close behind. With the field splintered early on, it seemed a breakaway was set to stay away over the 12.5km bike. However, tireless work from Csenge Orsolya Szász (HUN) and Hayley Cornwall (NZL), among others, brought most of the thirty-athlete final back together. Then, on the run, Szász made her move.
Szász had never made a Europe Junior Cup podium but her early and decisive attack showed all the hallmarks of a seasoned veteran. Kropkó put up a strong fight, but simply could not close the gap as her teammate powered home first. The fight for bronze was altogether more fraught as Månsson and Korinna Katona (HUN) hurtled through the last few hundred metres, desperately clutching for the half-metre to assure them of 3rd place. Yet they would remain locked together until the very end, with Månsson sneaking it with a determined final lunge.
Meanwhile, in his final Tiszaujvaros race as a junior athlete, the gold medal eluded last year’s bronze medallist Zsombor Holba (HUN) as he was denied by teammate András Szűcs (HUN). The top bike splits of the day lifted the Hungarian duo into the front pack that formed out of the water, with ten men together in total.
Once onto the 3.6km run, Holba and Szűcs assumed the lead with no one able to follow. When Szűcs then upped the tempo with a sudden surge, Holba had no answer and could only look on as his countryman flew to a first ever international win.
Behind, the race for bronze was heating up as Antonin Mathieu (FRA) came romping through from the chase pack, picking off members of the lead group one by one. Eventually, only Arthur Baigidin (RUS) stood between him and 3rd place. The Russian athlete threw everything he had at the long straight to the line, but Mathieu was simply too quick and sailed past to secure the bronze medal by 4 seconds. View the full results here.
Gallipoli World Triathlon Development Regional Cup
Finally, at the latest Development Regional Cup of the season we saw a Battle of the Bozhilovs in Gallipoli. Alexander Bozhilov (BUL), the winner of the last Development Regional Cup in Mamaia, and Petar Bozhilov (BUL) followed Taha Eren Coşgun (TUR) out of the water. Coşgun unfortunately did not finish the bike section and the Bozhilovs were unable to press home any initial advantage over the sprint distance 20km bike.
That proved inconsequential, however, as the Bulgarian pair moved clear over the 5km run. In the end, Petar, the older of the pair, had no answer to Alexander’s rich vein of form as the younger Bozhilov prevailed by 19 seconds. Vlad Adrian Remzing (ROU) then came through to claim the bronze medal.
In a small women’s field, Tunde Georgiana Crisan (ROU) came in as the favourite as the silver medallist and top returner from the previous round in Mamaia. At the same time, she had to find a way past the recent Balkan Championships winner Mira Ivanova Georgieva (BUL).
Both were well-placed coming out of the swim, and Georgieva promptly leap-frogged her way into the top spot out of T1. Momentum swung back Crisan’s way, however, as a late move saw her arrive inT2 first. A superb transition from Georgieva helped her wipe away most of Crisan’s advantage, but the Romanian still led out onto the run.
From there, the two guarded against the other over 5km. A late move handed the win to Crisan while Georgieva took 2nd and Iva Pavlovic (SRB) ran through to 3rd place. View the full results here.