Women’s race
It had been coming. After an outstanding swimming career prior to moving over to triathlon and having clocked some fast times earlier in the year, Jolien Vermeylen was on paper the best swimmer in the field. Up until now, though, she had not always been able to show it in her triathlon endeavours, or at least not to the degree she may have hoped.
That changed in Caorle as she ripped a crushing 750m split. Only four woman were able to get within 10 seconds of Vermeylen’s time of 10:46 in the water as she stretched the field. Athletes that could have otherwise been expected to contend for medals, such as Tanja Neubert and Lotte Miller, lost the best part of a minute.
It is not that Vermeylen has not swum fast before. Instead, her swim in Caorle felt different for the way she assumed control of the race and exerted herself over the entire field.
Sian Rainsley, Candice Denizot and Selina Klamt were the closest women to Vermeylen out of the water. When that quartet hit the bike out of T1, the entire field found themselves momentarily on the back foot. Over the first kilometre, as others nipped into the front group, Vermeylen tucked in behind the leaders, her first task complete having split up the field.
Rainsley took up the early job of setting the pace as a British foursome of Daisy Davies, Sophie Alden, Hollie Elliott and Sophia Green were among those to make their way in to the front pack.
In the pack behind, two young starlets of the sport, Tilda Månsson and Jule Behrens, tried to push the pace with Neubert, Nora Gmür and Carlotta Missaglia.
The gap to the front group, however, remained stubborn.
Over the course of the 20km, the leaders settled into a pack of a dozen. Cecilia Santamaria Surroca picked up a lot of the work in the second half as the pace stayed high. By the time they arrived in T2, the lead had grown to a minute, taking the sting out of the running speed of those in the chase.
While Denizot put up a valiant fight to remain in contact at the head of the race, the showdown quickly became one between Vermeylen, Rainsley, Klamt and Santamaria.
Klamt pushed ahead to an early lead while Rainsley and Vermeyeln followed. Santamaria sat comfortably a few metres behind. No matter what the chasers did, though, they could not quite eat into Klamt’s advantage.
As she began her second lap, Klamt seemed to ratchet things up to a new level and her lead began to rise. Rainlsey was not done and pushed ahead of Vermeylen to try to restrict the damage. Yet Klamt could not be touched.
The young German crossed the line to take the win by 7 seconds over the Brit. Further behind, Santamaria overtook Vermeylen in the closing stages to nab the bronze medal ahead of the Belgian.
Notably, Månsson clocked the swiftest 5km of the race (15:27 to Klamt’s 15:43) to run through to 6th behind Denizot.
Men’s race
The start of the men’s race had an eerie sense of déjà vu. Nicolò Strada led the way in the swim as Alessio Crociani, Valentin Morlec and Connor Bentley all gathered on his feet in a re-run of the World U23 Championships.
Along with Henry Graf, the first five men in the water did well to push the pace and put much of the field on the back foot. Once they exited T1, they had dropped medal threats like Charles Paquet, Hamish Reilly and Simon Henseleit.
Ben Dijkstra had lost around 10 seconds to the leaders in the water but quickly made up for it with a rapid T1 and strong first kilometre on the bike. Once he made contact with Bentley, the Loughborough pair set about establishing control of the front group.
Paul Georgenthum and Nicola Azzano were almost able to match Dijkstra’s surge after being slightly ahead into T1 but just fell short of making it into the pack. As a result, a lead group of eight solidified as Crociani and Strada took up the pace. Alberto Gonzalez Garcia and Baptiste Passemard were the other two men at the front.
In a replica of the women’s race, the lead pack added to its lead on each of the six laps. Even though the likes of Henseleit and Maxime Fluri tried to drive the chase pack forward, the gap only grew. Such was the lead of the front group into T2, no one from the chase was able to break into the top-8.
On the run, the race was therefore a straight shoot-out between two Brits, two Italians, two French athletes, a German and a Spaniard.
Graf, Gonzalez and Strada were the first to drop off the pace as Crociani and Morlec tried to force the early tempo. Ominously, Bentley and Dijkstra seemed completely untroubled during the first lap. Gradually Passemard began to fall behind too, leaving three medals to be split between four men.
And then the Brits dropped the hammer.
In another repeat of the World U23 Championships, it was Bentley that had the decisive kick. He seemed to go just before Crociani and Morlec expected it and gained an instant gap. Dijkstra went with him but he also could not quite hold on. Just as he had done in Abu Dhabi, Bentley used his blistering kick to shut down any hope of catching him and take the win.
Dijkstra was only a few seconds back at the finish line and held off Morlec to make it a British 1-2. For Morlec, it was a well-earned first medal of the year. Meanwhile Crociani could feel hard done by to come away empty handed after such a well-executed race.
View the full race results here.
