The racing in South America continued with an Olympic distance Americas Cup in La Habana, Cuba.
The main story line heading into the race was whether Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto would win a third race in row. She won last week in Venezuela and at her last race of 2022.
Men’s race
Darr Smith wore number 1 while last week’s silver medallist in La Guiara, Venezuela, Irving Perez, wore number 2. All eyes at the start, though, were on Slovakian athlete Richard Varga. As one of the best swimmers in the men’s WTCS of the past decade, Varga was a safe bet to lead out the 1500m swim in La Habana.
However, in a slight upset, Canadian Aiden Longcroft-Harris was actually the first man out. Smith was next out, 2 seconds behind. Varga remained in the mix in the front group as the field split in half under the pressure of the swim.
In the absence of any hiccups in T1, a front pack of fourteen men made it onto the bike. Among the leaders were Perez, Ramon Armando Matute and American Ka’eo Kruse.
Longcroft-Harris’ Canadian team mate Martin Sobey was one of the last men to make it into the front pack out of T1 and managed to latch onto the wheels ahead.
Fourteen men became twelve over the course of the bike as Varga and fellow Slovakian Peter Rotjas pressed the pace. There was little to separate the leading bunch, though, and the pack soon arrived into T2.
Smith had the best T2 of the leaders but Sobey, Matute and Perez were quickly alongside him as they settled into the 10km run.
For the first few kilometres, no one really seized control and the race became tactical. Indeed, as Varga, Longcroft-Harris and Rotjas slipped behind, the pace only really picked up in the final stretches.
Kruse, Perez, Matute and Sobey barrelled to the finish line, with Smith not far behind. In the final stages, Matute began to lose contact, yielding a stride or two as the sprint finish began to fire.
Perez, too, could not quite hang on to the burst as Kruse and Sobey stormed ahead. It was Sobey, though, that made it over the line first, 1 second ahead of Kruse.
Perez followed a mere 5 seconds behind Kruse to earn bronze.
Women’s race
They say imitation is the best form of flattery. Performing her best peak Richard Varga impression, Ivana Kuriackova led out the swim, forming a solid gap into T1. The Slovakian athlete swam 9 seconds faster than the next quickest woman and put a number of athletes on the back foot.
Among those to lose time was Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto. The Colombian ceded 47 seconds to Kuriackova and had to make up considerable time over the bike.
In the absence of anyone to ride with in the early stages of the bike, Kuriackova made the smart decision of letting the chase catch her. Almost the entire field made the front pack in the end, with much of the pace set by Romina Biagioli and Xisca Tous.
For Tous, La Habana marked the first time she would represent her new nationality of Turkey. Having represented Spain until February 2022, she only became eligible to start for Turkey less than a week before the race in Cuba.
As the bunch rolled through the bike and arrived into T2, Tous and Velasquez were quick off the mark and onto the run. Unlike last week in Venezuela, though, Velasquez did not simply run away to the win.
Instead, Kuriackova, Biagioli and Tous matched her at every turn. The quartet surged ahead of the main field and, eventually, Velasquez began to pull clear. However, that did not mark the end of the gold medal hunt.
Velasquez was issued with a 15 second time penalty to be served on the run which dragged her back into the quartet, setting up a sprint finish.
Kuriackova pushed hard to move ahead of Biagioli and Tous and in the closing metres was on Velasquez’s hip. The Colombian athlete, though, had a little too much in the end and won by 1 second. Both Kuriackova and Velasquez shared the fastest run split of the day.
10 seconds behind, Tous managed to get the better of Biagioli to take the bronze medal by 1 second.
View the full results here.
