On the same day the Viña del Mar World Cup took place, the Americas Cup race at the same location was underway.
Elite Women’s Race
Leading the way in the women’s field was Romina Biagioli of Argentina. Rather unusually, the race was essentially decided from the swim. First out of the water was Sophia Howell of Canada in a time of 10:46, with Cuban athlete Leslie Amat Alvarez two seconds back and Biagioli a further four seconds back.
That trio, once they escaped in the water, would not be seen again by the field for the rest of the race.
The next best swimmer was ten seconds down on Biagioli however the trio increased their lead as they logged three of the four fastest bike splits of the day. Such was their dominance across the first two disciplines, by the time they arrived into T2 they had built a lead of a minute and a half over the next athletes.
For good measure, Biagioli would go on to log the fastest run split of the day, running 17:54 over the 5km, 27 seconds faster than Amat Alvarez. Howell slipped off the pace during the run, however she held onto the bronze medal and finished one minute and one second ahead of fourth place.
A Tokyo Olympian, Biagioli has recently logged top-10 finishes at both the Americas Championships in Montevideo and the South American Games in Asuncion. Her win was therefore not a great surprise. The manner of her victory, though, was very impressive.
Elite Men’s Race
Much like the women’s race, the men’s race rewarded the athletes that pushed the pace on the swim. First amongst those was Ramon Armando Matute of Ecuador as he logged the fastest swim of the day in 8:57. He was the only man to swim under 9 minutes. With Chris Gregor of Canada and Cristobal Baeza Muñoz of Chile for company, Matute built up a considerable lead over the bike course. Together, the three men had a lead of over thirty seconds over their nearest challengers.
After such efforts over the swim and the bike, the three leaders did not have the same speed on the run as several other athletes. As a result, Gregor and Baeza Muñoz slipped down to fourth and fifth by the finish.
Matute, however, managed to hold on for the win.
Silver medallist Russell Pennock of Canada actually out-ran Matute by thirty-three seconds and ended up finishing only seven seconds behind. Pennock’s split of 15:15 was the second fastest of the day, behind American Ka’aeo Kruse. Another Canadian, Solen Wood, managed to run himself into bronze.
View the women’s and men’s results here.
