Last weekend saw plenty of action in Cuba at the Americas Cup races and several of the athletes were back racing in Americas Cup events. One such event took place in La Paz, Mexico.
The athletes took on a challenging Olympic distance course, with a particularly unforgiving sea swim.
Women’s race
The non-wetsuit swim proved an arduous task for the field as the ocean currents were not favourable. Sarah-Lee Hevey of Canada led the women out of the water in 24:21. At her feet was a line of seven women. Hevey’s compatriot, Dominka Jamnicky, was the 9th woman out of the water, some 20 seconds down on Hevey.
With a fast T1 and an early push on the bike, Jamnicky was able to bridge up to the leaders.
Alongside Lizeth Rueda Santos, Jamnicky quickly established herself as one of the strongest riders in the front pack and applied a lot of pressure to those riding with her. With Sophie Howell and Mexican athlete Mercedes Romero Orozco for company, Jamnicky and Rueda Santos broke clear of the pack to form a four woman breakaway.
Together, they built up a substantial lead. Jamnicky logged the fastest bike split of the day in 1:06:32. Her three breakaway companions rode around 15 seconds slower having been ahead of Jamnicky out of the water.
Once that quartet made it into T2, it seemed the medals had mostly been decided. It simply remained to be seen which of the four would miss out.
Both Rueda Santos and Jamnicky went hard out of T2. Neither Howell nor Romero Orozco could quite hang on and quickly ceded a lot of ground. Still, with a bronze medal on the line, both Howell and Romero Orozco dug deep.
In the closing stages, Jamnicky built a decisive gap over Rueda Santos and took the win by 20 seconds.
Further back, however, two athletes were enjoying storming runs.
Paola Diaz and Luisa Daniela Baca Vargas had lost over 2 minutes on the bike to the front pack. However, they each produced sensational run splits to overhaul Howell and Romero Orozco.
Diaz and Baca Vargas ran over a minute quicker than Jamnicky and Rueda Santos too and turned their head-to-head into a race for the bronze medal.
In the end Diaz edged clear to win bronze ahead of Baca Vargas.
Romero Orozco rounded out the top-5.
Men’s race
Martin Sobey of Canada was perhaps the early favourite after his win in La Habana.
However, he was caught out in the swim as a small breakaway formed. Sobey’s compatriot, Aiden Longcroft-Harris, led the men into T1 having recorded a split of 20:25. Right with him were Brock Hoel and Chase Mcqueen.
Both John Reed and Irving Perez were tantalisingly close to the front trio. Yet once they were onto the bike, Longcroft-Harris, Hoel and Mcqueen set a furious tempo. Neither Reed nor Perez could hang on.
Over the course of the 40km, the front trio built a lead of over 90 seconds.
Reed and Sobey slotted into the next pack on the road which contained Sobey and young Polish athlete Marcin Stanglewicz.
The lead of the front group, though, was insurmountable.
On the run, Chase Mcqueen lost contact with the Canadian duo of Hoel and Longcroft-Harris. He had done enough, though, to secure bronze. In the closing stages, Longcroft-Harris kicked clear to take the win by 2 seconds.
Sobey and Perez out-ran the gold and silver medallists by almost a minute, but had to settle for 4th and 5th, respectively.
View the full results here.
