Having won the World Junior titles in Hamburg a little over three weeks ago, Ilona Hadhoum and Joao Nuno Batista were the favourites to take the wins at the European Junior Championships in Balikesir.
Both impressed in the semi-finals, with Batista winning his race in storming fashion. Hadhoum, meanwhile, produced a slightly more reserved performance in the semi-final.
The next day, as the finals rolled around, Batista and Hadhoum each stepped up to another level to claim the gold medals.
In the men’s race, Zalán Hóbor had pushed the pace over the 270m swim, clocking 3:02 to lead the way. Batista followed 5 seconds later, on the feet of Pietro Giovannini.
The leading trio jumped clear of the field early on in the 8km bike.
Strung out by Gyula Kovács, a group of men chased and drew within a few seconds of the leaders. To all intents and purposes, the front of the race came together. Yet around the corners, the cracks were constantly visible. Late on in the bike, Batista attacked again.
Then, once onto the run, Batista turned the small cracks into a yawning chasm.
He thundered away from the field after finessing a rapid T2. By the time he crossed the finish line, he stumbled a little and dropped to the ground, utterly spent. And no wonder: his efforts saw him take the win by 19 seconds.
While Batista made mincemeat of the course, ten men were still in contention for a medal. In the ensuing sprint finish, Hóbor and Euan De Nigro were able to overcome Nils Serre Gehri and David Lang to claim silver and bronze, respectively, by the tiniest of margins.
Ilona Hadhoum was equally dominant in the Junior women’s race.
The French athlete was the quickest swimmer of the field, clocking 3:25. A group of outstanding athletes, such as Nora Romina Nádas, Bethany Cook, Manon Laporte, Margareta Vrablova, Sara Crociani and Antonia Jubb emerged less than 10 seconds behind Hadhoum and gathered behind her on the bike.
The World Junior champion, though, was in no mood to give up her early lead. Over the first of the three bike laps, she continued to apply as much pressure as she could to the chasers. Even as the chase group was bolstered by the arrivals of Alejandra Seguí Soria and Kateřina Hadravova, they could not reel in Hadhoum.
Indeed, just as it looked like they were about to catch the French woman, she darted away again.
By the time Hadhoum arrived in T2, she had a lead of barely 10 seconds. That, though, was more than enough.
She powered through the 1.7km run to seal her victory in supreme fashion. With Hadhoum in such form, there was nothing the rest of the field could really do to stop her.
Having dominated her semi-final, Cook was the best of the chasers on the run. She clocked 5:44, sharing the fastest split with Hadravova, to finish 2nd. Although Cook out-split Hadhoum by 5 seconds, she nonetheless crossed the line 4 seconds after the winner.
Seguí then backed up her sterling effort on the bike with a brilliant run to seal the bronze medal. The Spaniard was only 1 second behind Cook and held off Hadravova by 2 seconds in a tight finish.
Batista and Hadhoum therefore achieved the double to cap off spectacular summers. While Hadhoum will be moving up to the U23 ranks next season, the men will be in for a challenge as Batista still has one more year of eligibility at the Junior level.
You can view the men’s results here and the women’s results here.
