The Asian U23 and Junior Championships were held earlier today in Gamagori, Japan.
With the athletes racing over the Sprint distance, for some the event offered a final tune-up ahead of the World Junior Championships. For others, such as the Kazakhstan’s men’s team that spurned the spots they earned, it was a chance to show what the field in Hamburg could have gone up against.
On that note, the Kazakhstan team made a statement as Alexandr Ten won the Junior men’s race in style.
Ten finished 4th at the same event last year after winning the 2022 European Junior Cup in Rzeszów. This time round, he made no mistake as he launched a devastating burst of speed on the run to seal the victory ahead of Amu Omuro and Takuto Oshima.
The Japanese pair attacked the swim and gained a lead of beyond 40 seconds over all bar one of their Junior rivals. Omuro led in 9:26 while Oshima was 3 seconds back. Together, they then quickly settled into a rhythm on the bike and worked to maintain their lead.
Over the course of the bike, a group of four men consisting of Ten, his compatriot Yegor Krupyakov, Xirui Zhang of China and Tak Long Yip of Hong Kong, bridged to the lead pair. For the remainder of the 20km, the lead six rode as pack, notwithstanding some late minor bursts of speed.
The group soon fell apart on the run as Ten, Omuro and Oshima pulled away. In the end, though, it was Ten that won in comfort as he produced the only sub-16 minute 5km on his way to a 15:55 split. Omuro narrowly out-ran Oshima to take the silver medal. As has been the recent pattern, both Japanese men were exceptionally well-matched.
Although Ten won’t be at the World Junior Championships in July, Omuro and Oshima will. Their intranational battle for supremacy in Hamburg will therefore be among the intriguing sub-plots of the race.
Japan also won two medals in the Junior women’s race as Manami Hayashi put in a marvellous display to take the win.
Hinaka Masuda of Japan led the swim, with Hayashi on her feet. In total, a group of seven women emerged together and made their way into T1. Among the leaders were Pauline Courret and Zoe Metais, Hong Kong’s representatives at the upcoming World Junior Championships.
The lead pack swiftly dwindled to four as Masuda, Hayashi, Courret and Metais took control of the race. Each of the quartet pulled some big shifts on the bike and demonstrated plenty of promise ahead of Hamburg. However, once the run unfolded, Hayashi and Masdua stormed ahead of their rivals from Hong Kong to seal the top spots on the podium.
Metais faded out of contention but Courret managed to hold to take bronze.
Hayashi’s performance will have been especially reassuring as she recorded top-3 splits in all three disciplines. All four women, though, should be confident of enjoying successful races in Hamburg based on their offerings in Gamagori.
One slight cause for concern was that Ayame Hayashi, the third member of the Japanese team in Hamburg, did not start.
Meanwhile, the men’s U23 race followed a similar pattern to the Junior events.
Mitsuho Mochizuki led the swim in 9:17 will Robin Elg of Hong Kong the next man out. Tzu I Pan of Chinese Taipei was the fourth man into T1 yet lost 20 seconds to Mochizuki. However he then came powering back on the bike. As a result, a three man breakaway formed at the front on the race.
With Mochizuki dropping the hammer, the trio earned a healthy lead in the first half of the bike. Further back Jason Tai Long Ng tried to rally after ceding 30 seconds to Mochizuki in the water. However, in a similar fashion to the Asian Championships in Samarkand, he missed the breakaway and ended up as the lead cyclist of the chase.
The lead group therefore carried a lead of just over 75 seconds into T2. After his massive effort on the bike, Mochizuki fell behind and could only watch as Elg and Pan distanced themselves. Over the course of the 5km, Elg out-ran Pan to take the win on the back of a split of 16:51.
As Elg took the win, his compatriot Ng overhauled Mochizuki to take 3rd. Most notably, Ng had the fastest split of the field in 16:05. With his run clearly firing, he just needs to find a way to get closer to the leaders in the race to put himself in contention for the win. The reason for his gaps in Samarkand and Gamagori could be tactical or physical; it is hard to say.
Either way, with Ng in a tight race to take the Asian New Flag slot at the Paris Olympics, he will need to maximise his points over the coming year. The best way to do that may be to find a little more speed in the water and at the start of the bike.
The women’s U23 race saw the closest thing to a large front pack form on the bike.
After Xinying Yu of China led the swim in a time of 10:13, a group of fourteen women formed at the head of the race. Athletes such as Bailee Brown of Hong Kong, Sarika Nakayama of Japan and Meiyi Lu of China made the main group. If the leaders thought they would be able to settle into the run, though, they were mistaken.
Towards the end of the bike, Mako Hiraizumi attacked and gained a small gap over the pack. Yu and Lu made a big push to reel her in but Hiraizumi held firm and carried her advantage into T2.
On the run, Yu, Brown, Nakayama and Lu all passed Hiraizumi as the Japanese woman paid for her surge on the bike. Lu gradually pulled clear and went on to take the win. With the fastest 5km split of the field (18:18), she finished 13 seconds clear of Brown.
The Hong Kong athlete, Brown, held on for silver ahead of Nakayama of Japan.
You can check out the full race results here.
