A look at some of the most recent world champions in the category (three of the last five women’s winners of this title include Kate Waugh, Emma Lombardi and Taylor Knibb) highlights just how big a deal today’s U23 World Championship Final is. While many of the names might not be recognizable now, there’s a good chance they will be over the next few years.
Everything you need to know about this weekend’s World Triathlon Championships
Today’s racing in Torremolinos saw a sprint for the line in the women’s race, while the men’s race saw a runaway victory. Here’s a recap of the day’s racing.
Horvath sprints to the win
Canada’s Sophia Howell led the women out of the water alongside France’s Candice Denizot, with a group of nine forming early on in the bike, but towards the end of the 40 km bike the chasers were able to finally catch the lead group, setting up a big group into T2.
A group of six formed in the run including Hungary’s Karolina Horvath, Slovakia’s Zuzana Michalickova, Portugal’s Maria Tome, Switzlerand’s Cathia Schar and Nora Gmur, along with Denizot.
As they hit the final stages of the run Denizot and Gmur were dropped, then Schar fell off, leaving a three-way sprint for the medals. Michalickova appeared to have the upper hand, surging to hit the blue carpet in front, but Horvath answered quickly with a huge sprint to the tape, taking the world title ahead of the Slovak, with Tome rounding out the podium.
You can see the full results here.
No touching Cantero
What started out as a tactical battle became a rout early on in the run in the men’s race as Spain’s David Cantero del Campo annihilated the rest of the field once the run started.
Great Britain’s Marcus Dey led the way out of the water, with a front group of 11 quickly forming on the bike that included Cantero and another fast runner, Greek athlete Panagiotis Bitados. A chase pack of 14 would eventually work its way up to the front, joining the 11 leaders on the last of the eight laps of the 40 km bike course.
Germany’s Henry Graf led the way out on to the run course, but not for long as Cantero surged to the front and quickly dropped the rest of the group. Bitados managed to stay the closest, but he was never a threat as Cantero opened up a 24-second lead by the halfway point of the run, with a group of six now duelling for the bronze medal almost a minute behind.
Cantero would cruise across the line 34 seconds up on Bitados, with Hungary’s Gergely Kiss managing to break clear of the group to take the bronze medal.
You can see full results here.
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