At WTCS Leeds in 2022, the medals in the Mixed Team Relay (pictured above) were won by Germany, Great Britain and France. In a symmetrical turn of events, we can compare the performance tests of the next generation of Juniors for each of those three countries.
It is, of course, not an exact science. With differing demands to each countries’ tests, the performances are not completely alike.
We will also take the distances at face value although there is always a chance that something could have been a little off in the bike and the run. At this point, though, we do not suspect that the swimming pools were inaccurately measured.
Still, there is plenty to compare and contrast with the data available.
To start with, let’s look at the tests themselves.
The French athletes completed a swim of 800m (50m) on the Saturday, before returning on the Sunday morning for a 5km time trial on the track. Later in the afternoon, they took on a 3.6km time trial on the bike.
Germany, meanwhile set out a single day test for its athletes. It started with a 750m (25m) swim. Afterwards, the athletes had a short break of around 30 minutes before tackling a bike-run of 20km and 5km.
The British test was somewhere between the two with the athletes swimming 800m (25m) on the Saturday and then finishing with a 20km bike into 5km run on the Sunday.
The tests, therefore, were similar in several respects whilst also being different enough to avoid too much crossover.
We have previously broken down the comparison between the French and German tests so we will not belabour the point. Rather, we will see how Britain’s Juniors slot in.
The point of this is not to say which country or athletes are better or worse. However, triathlon is a competitive sport so comparison at any point is inevitable. Highlighting a relative strength or weakness can be helpful in the long run and comparing allows athletes to see what their international contemporaries are doing.
The Men
Top-3 Reminders
France
- Gaspard Tharreau (S: 9:09, R: 15:13)
- Thomas Hansmaennel (S: 9:22, R: 14:51)
- Achille Besson (S: 9:33, R: 14:54)
Germany
- Jan Pluta (S: 8:50, B: 28:14, R: 15:27)
- Tim Semmler (S: 8:55, B: 28:13, R: 15:34)
- Jan Semmler (S: 8:50, B: 28:16, R: 15:37)
Great Britain
- Lawrence Martindale (S: 8:42, B: 28:09, R: 16:42)
- Tom Hattee (S: 8:40, B: 28:09, R: 16:44)
- Liam Edwards (S: 9:12, B: 28:49, R: 15:48)
As the French athletes did not cycle 20km and the bike came at the end of the test, we have opted to focus only on the swim and run times for France.
On face value, the British Junior men were the best swimmers of the three countries by a thin margin. If we start by looking at the fastest split, Paul Delamare led the French rankings with a time of 8:56.6. Meanwhile, Jakob von Muller’s time of 8:22 roughly works out to around 8:55, too.
If the long course-short course conversion is factored in (although that is always a bit trickier with triathletes and the variance seen in turns and underwaters), Tom Hattee’s 8:40 could be a little closer to 8:50 in a long course pool. Either way, the fastest swimmer of the three tests was British.
Moreover, if we compare the top-3 finishers from each tests, the British trio had the slightly better swimming times. This was a result of Hattee finishing 2nd in part; Lawrence Martindale’s fast swim, though, also played a big role.
Indeed, Martindale swam faster than the German winner Jan Pluta despite swimming an additional 50m.
That being said, the German Juniors could not quite let rip as much as their counterparts as they had a small recovery window. The top-3 finishers in the French and German tests were also fairly comparable in the water.
In terms of depth, the British men also were on balance the better group of swimmers. With six men under the 9 minute mark, there was quite a concentration of athletes producing fast times.
Moving on to the bike, it is harder to draw parallels as meaningful as the swim mainly because the courses were different and the group sizes varied.
In the German men’s test, a large front pack formed whereas Hattee and Martindale led a two man break in the British test. The British duo were able to ride a little faster than the leading Germans.
On the other hand, it looks like the German men were better than the Brits on the bike in terms of depth. With the French Juniors only riding 3.6km, there is not a lot to say about them on this front.
We then come to the run. On this measure, the French Junior men were comprehensively the better performers. While the French test lent itself to fast times as it was a track time trial and not a brick run, the simple fact that seven French men run under 15 minutes is astonishing.
In a more direct comparison given the similar test, the German men out-ran the British men. The top-3 finishers in the German test were all faster than their British counterparts. Moreover the fastest British split would not have made the top-6 German run splits.
This current crop of British Juniors therefore appear to be led by two strong swim-bikers whereas the Germans were led more by the bike-runners.
The best reference point amidst all of this is Thomas Hansmaennel. Last year’s World Junior champion recently won the European Junior Cup in Quarteira and is probably the best Junior triathlete in the world right now (although he has several challengers).
Most tellingly, no one in any of the three tests could match his swim-run combination, even with some leeway granted for the bike. To any young aspiring male triathlete, then, the level Hansmaennel is capable of is realistically the best benchmark available.
The Women
Top-3 Reminders
France
- Ilona Hadoum (S: 9:28, R; 16:48)
- Manon Laporte (S: 9:34, 17:14)
- Lea Houart (S: 10:06, 17:21)
Germany
- Mirjam Huber (S: 9:07, B: 30:55, R: 19:20)
- Kjara Reckmann (S: 9:12, B: 30:50, R: 19:26)
- Marielle Bouchti (S: 9:39, B: 31:29, R: 18:31)
Great Britain
- Eve Whitaker (S: 9:41, B: 32:04, R: 17:58)
- Oliva Logan (S: 9:34, B: 32:11, R: 19:00)
- Isla Hedley (S: 9:53, B: 32:42, R: 18:16)
We saw in the comparison between Germany and France that, aside from Ilona Hadhoum and Manon Laporte, the Junior women’s swims were very similar. With the exception of Lily Scott, the British women also fit in well.
Scott was over 20 seconds better than the next quickest British woman (with a split of 9:11) and is on balance the only woman from the three tests that could go with Hadhoum and Laporte in the water.
Given that Hadhoum was the best performing French Junior on record, that is a noteworthy point. If you remove the outliers of Hadhoum, Laporte, Scott and maybe Mirjam Huber, the swims are incredibly alike without a great deal to separate the three fields.
On the bike, the German women were better than the British women. Whereas a couple of British Junior men were able to match up with the times produced by the German men, the women were quite a way back. Considering that the British women also had Senior women riding in some of the lead packs, it was a little surprising to see them over a minute behind the equivalent German groups over 20km.
As was the case with the men, the French tests produced the best run times. Again, it helped that the French Juniors did not cycle directly beforehand. However, having seen Houart in action in Quarteira where she ran to a silver medal, it is a fair assumption that the French women would have been faster than their British and German counterparts even with a bike before.
On the British side, it should be noted that Bethany Cook and Isabella Hayes were absent; in terms of raw speed, they would not have been far from matching Hadhoum’s 5km performance.
In their absence, Eve Whitaker was the best of the Brits and she out-ran all of the German women. In terms of depth on the women’s run, the Germans were fairly close to the Brits.
However, the crucial point to note is that World and European Junior titles are not won at national tests in the spring. By the end of the summer, a lot of the above numbers may be meaningless.
Nevertheless, when the best Juniors of France, Germany and Britain stepped up to the plate, they showed what they can do. A couple of them could even be future world champions although it is impossible to say for sure which athletes that will be. For any aspiring athletes or coaches out there, the performances are a great indicator of what it takes at this developmental stage.
At the same time, there is no need to get too carried away with the numbers. A lot of world class triathletes did not have great Junior careers after all.
Leo Bergere was a decent Junior but got much better as he aged. Furthermore others like Jessica Learmonth and Morgan Pearson did not come to the sport until their twenties.
