A decade on from the 2016 Olympic Games, it seemed fitting that the return to Rio de Janeiro was at the vanguard of a weekend in which a new generation made plenty of noise. From breakthroughs in Brazil, new European Junior champions in Poland, World Junior champions impressing and more, it was clear that the new kids on the block are ready to be heard. Find out all that went down in this week’s edition of the Monday Morning Mix.
Elblag Europe Sprint Championships
On home soil, Roksana Slupek (POL) held off two French World Junior champions, Ambre Grasset (the 2024 winner) and Léa Houart (the 2025 winner), to claim the biggest victory of her career so far. In doing so she transformed the narrative of her season from that of a comeback to that of pure triumph.
Bethany Cook (GBR) took the lead in the 750m swim (10:21) and tried to engineer a breakaway with fellow Brit Eve Whitaker. Behind, Houart had the best T1 time to position herself towards the front of the chase while Grasset made up ground. It was only late on that the field finally came together with Slupek well placed.
Slupek’s running form had looked particularly sharp in her recent 7th place finish at WTCS Hamburg, and she proved too quick for the field as she won the 5km footrace by 15 seconds. Grasset then pipped Houart by 1 second as they forced Whitaker from the podium. All three will likely renew this mini-rivalry at the World U23 Championships later this year.
In the men’s race, Milan Lariviere (FRA) backed up his recent win in Holten with a huge performance in Poland, beating Michael Gar (GBR), the European Championship silver medallist over the standard distance in Tarragona, to the win.
Zalán Hóbor (HUN) was the top swimmer of the day (9:13), emerging ahead of Gar. Once again, the field largely came back together on the bike, and it was on the run that Lariviere made his move. A 14:29 split was enough to deny Gar by 5 seconds while Hóbor came through to claim the bronze medal. View the full results here.
Elblag Europe Junior Championships
Last year, Anouk Danna (SUI) settled for bronze behind Grasset and Fanni Szalai (HUN) at the Europe Junior Championships. After the sensational form she has shown this year, with international wins at both the junior and senior level, she would not be thwarted again as she stormed to a brilliant victory.
The field broke up early with a select pack of ten coming into T2 together. Danna was among them and with her running speed only one outcome seemed likely. She duly unleashed a 16:36 5km split, just 5 seconds slower than Slupek’s field-leading split in the senior race, to bring home the gold by 25 seconds. France’s Anouk Rigaud came away with the silver medal as Danna’s teammate Kimey Casanova (SUI) joined her on the podium again, having done so at the Olsztyn Europe Junior Cup.
A rapid run split was likewise enough to hand Sebastian Ziekman (LUX) the win in the men’s race. After a recent silver medal at the Wels Junior Cup, Ziekman had given a hint of what he could do, but he found a new level altogether in Poland.
The Luxembourgish athlete was towards the front out of the water but the lead group swelled as athletes rode up, including the day’s top rider, Lucas Gorril (GBR). Jelle Kaindl (AUT), already a Europe Cup winner and World Cup debutant this year, was also prominent but had no answer to Ziekman’s 15:05 run split. Gorril then managed to fend off Kaindl to secure the silver over the Austrian’s bronze. View the full results here.
Santo Domingo Central America and Caribbean Games
Regular readers will note it has been a minute since we have seen a standard distance race on the international scene. Indeed, the Americas Championships in July and the Europe Championships in June stand as the only standard distance events since WTCS Alghero at the end of May.
One of the standout victories in that period of sprint distance action was Ana Maria Valentina Torres Gomez’s (MEX) home triumph in Huatulco, and in Santo Domingo she showed she could do it over the longer format too with a resounding win.
WTCS medallist Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal (MEX) led out of the water in 20:27, carrying a 10 second lead into T1. Her efforts helped to split the field with a ten-woman front pack riding clear. Torres was present in this pack, as was World Cup winner Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto (COL). The 10km run unsurprisingly became a showdown between these three World Cup winners but it was Torres that came out on top, her 35:13 split seeing her home first by a comprehensive 39 seconds. Velasquez crossed next in 2nd while Tapia held on to 3rd place.
Further Mexican joy came in the men’s race as Aram Michell Peñaflor Moysen (MEX) stood at the top of a podium of Paris Olympians. After Nicolas Probert Vargas (MEX) led the swim out, a six-man group took control of the race. This included Peñaflor as well as Matthew Wright (BAR) and Tyler Smith (BER).
A 30:50 10km split from Peñaflor was more than enough to defeat his breakaway partners as he won by 41 seconds. The battle between Wright and Smith remained close throughout the 10km, however, and was only settled by a late push from Wright as he charged clear to the silver medal. View the full results here.
Rio de Janeiro World Cup
Finally, ten years after the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games closed a chapter in the sport as Alistair Brownlee (GBR) and Gwen Jorgensen (USA) claimed the final major titles of their careers, the return to the Copacabana ushered in a crop of new faces ready to take the sport by storm.
In the women’s race, Zuzana Michalickova (SVK) capitalised on a breakaway of fifteen athletes to claim the first World Cup win of her career. Home star Vittoria Lopes (BRA) had led out of the water (10:23) and the leaders successfully gapped several speedy runners in the chase group. Over a tense 5km, Michalickova then found her way past Huatulco medallist Kelly Wetteland (USA) to snatch the win by 1 second. Former World Junior champion Beatice Mallozzi (ITA) was a further 2 seconds back as she claimed a first ever World Cup medal in 3rd place.
There was another maiden winner in the men’s race as Braxton Legg (USA) found a way past a possessed Dylan McCullough (NZL). McCullough led the swim from Pietro Giovannini (ITA) and Diego Moya (CHI) (clocking 8:48) and his work helped to set up an even smaller breakaway than that seen in the women’s race.
McCullough was not satisfied yet, though, and promptly did his utmost to savage the legs of those around him. Before long, the pack was down to seven athletes after shaking off the dangerous Americas champion Reese Vannerson (USA). By the end of the 20km bike, the chase pack had almost a minute to make up and it was too much to get onto the podium. That left Legg, McCullough and World Cup medallist Mitch Kolkman (NED) to battle it out for the win.
Legg went with the blue carpet in sight and managed to force his way clear. Yet with every step McCullough began to claw back ground until the line finally arrived and the American prevailed by 1 second. Kolkman then secured the bronze medal. Perhaps these breakthroughs on the Copacabana will presage the journeys to another of the world’s most famous beaches: Venice Beach, where the triathlon events at LA 2028 will take place. View the full results here.