Across three semi-finals, the men’s and women’s fields at the European Junior Championships were whittled down to thirty apiece ahead of the final. A top-9 finish would book a place in the final while the three fastest non-qualifiers would be added.
In the first men’s semi-final, the World Junior champion, Joao Nuno Batista, took a grip on the race in the swim that he did not relinquish.
Gergő Gyula Soós and Gregor Rasva followed Batista into T1 and the field behind was already spread thin. Although they pushed the pace with Batista, a pack of sixteen men ultimately came together on the bike.
On the run, several men dropped off the pace as a front group of nine pulled away. Soós tried to cling to the group. Over the course of the 1.7km, though, he was slowly detached.
Batista surged ahead to cross first, 4 seconds clear of Hector Tolsa Garcia. David Lang and Gaspard Tharreau then followed close behind. Rasva was the final automatic qualifier in 9th, while Soós crossed 10 seconds after in 10th and faced an anxious wait to see if he would make the final.
In the second men’s semi-final, Zalán Hóbor and Pietro Giovannini moved into an early lead in the swim. With Hóbor at the helm, a tough bike was on the cards and he duly delivered. The likes of Thomas Hansmaennel, Euan De Nigro and Michael Gar were able to quickly ride up before the Hóbor train left the station.
Setting a brutal early pace, the Hóbor-led front pack forced the rest of the field to scramble behind to make up ground. With Roy Baron in the mix, seven men held a lead over the field as they arrived into T2. There was no need to waste any energy and they cruised through the run together.
Gyula Kovács nudged ahead of his compatriot Hóbor at the end while Carol Popa ran up to the front group with the best split of the semi-final (5:05).
Aurelien Carre took 9th place, leaving Eyal Weinstein to cross his fingers in 10th.
Márton Kropkó ensured another Hungarian man led the third semi-final into T1. Kropkó’s pace helped to split the field in half with the likes of Nils Serre Gehri, Pablo Isotton and José Ramón Jímenez Blazquez making the front pack.
Jímenez went on the lead the front pack over the finish line on the run, taking the same time as Isotton and Serre Gehri. Kropkó finished safely in 6th while Filip Lizak took 9th place.
In the end, Soós and Weinstein made the final as the fastest non-qualifiers. However, the final qualifier did not come from the third semi-final. Instead, Jasper Devos of Belgium qualified courtesy of his 11th place in the second semi-final.
With only twenty-one women in the first semi-final, making the top-9 was not an arduous task for the World Junior champion Ilona Hadhoum.
She led the swim ahead of Nora Romina Nádas and Sara Crociani. Hadhoum and Nádas then rode ahead of the field during the bike. Crociani slipped into a chase pack containing Antonia Jubb, Alejandra Seguí Soria and Sonja De Koning that sat around 10 seconds behind. With the front pack of two and a chase group of seven, the top-9 seemed settled heading into T2.
Crociani and Jubb would run up to Hadhoum and Nádas but otherwise a fairly lowkey run followed. With the front two bike packs safely ahead, there was no need to expend unnecessary eneergy. Iva Pavlovic crossed in 9th, 5 seconds ahead of a charging Edita Pozlerova.
Pozlerova’s run split of 6:04 was 9 seconds better than the next best (by Crociani).
Bethany Cook absolutely dominated the second semi-final and put the rest of the field on notice.
She led the swim in a time of 3:25, matching Hadhoum’s time in the first semi-final (and missing Nádas’ time by 2 seconds). Once Cook escaped in the water, no one in her field saw her again.
Riding solo on the bike, she held off the chase group behind and then cruised through the run to win by 9 seconds.
Behind, ten women battled for the remaining eight automatic slots into the final. Aniek Mars and Eline Debecker rode well to take charge of the chase. Along with Johanna Uherek, Alice Alessandri, Ana Gómez Carballo, Liss Kapten and Noémi Van Der Kaaij, then locked up places in the top-8 on the run.
Lili Dobi followed safely in 9th.
In the third and final Junior women’s semi-final, Manon Laporte dropped a 3:25 swim split to lead by 11 seconds into T1. Margareta Vrablova led the chase and with the help of Isla Hedley, Linda Krombach and more was able to bring a pack of ten riders onto Laporte’s wheel.
Marielle Bouchti lost contact with the front group, leaving ten women to roll into T2 together.
Vrablova, Krombach and Hedley then led the pack over the finish line to seal their places in the final. Laporte paced her effort to finish 6th. Kateřina Hadravova was the last final qualifier as she dropped a monster 5:52 run to beat Dóra Pusztai from the lead pack by 3 seconds.
Pusztai could take heart, though, as she was the fastest non-automatic qualifier and therefore made the final anyway.
Yali Vitkin (10th, semi-final 2) and Marielle Bouchti (11th, semi-final 3) were then the last women to make the final based on time.
