Coming into the Troutbeck African Cup, Barbara De Koning was on a hot streak. After three straight wins at the African Cup level, the Dutch athlete was looking to take a fourth consecutive victory.
Similarly, the men’s field contained recent African Cup winner Ayan Beisenbayev. With precious points available towards World Triathlon rankings, a small field of athletes had a perfect opportunity to either continue medal-winning form or kick-start their season.
However, while the race was only over the Sprint distance, Troutbeck was by no means an easy course. With the athletes racing at an altitude of over 2000m (over twice that experienced by those racing in Nepal) and with a hilly bike and run course, the challenge was more than some might have anticipated.
Men’s race
Martin Demuth of Austria led the way in the water with a split of 9:03. James Edgar sat only a few seconds behind but thereafter the gaps grew. In the end, only three more men were able to get within 40 seconds of Demuth’s split.
That gave Demuth and Edgar plenty of leeway to exploit on the bike. The bike course that awaited, though, was a little more than they bargained for. With a peak gradient of 16%, the hilly laps were a real test of the athletes’ cycling chops. From behind, South African athlete Dylan Nortje made the most of the hills to bridge to the two leaders after losing time in the swim.
As Badr Siwane dropped out during the bike, a trio of Beisenbayev, Tyler Smith and Jorge Alarcon Familiar formed behind the leaders. They could not fully reel in the leading three men, though, and so had a gap to close on the run.
Demuth quickly paid for his efforts on the run and fell behind. If the bike course had been hard, the run was tougher still with the course peaking with a 19% gradient.
Nortje tried to stay with Edgar but the Irishman was a class apart.
In the early stages, Smith, Alarcon and Beisenbayev stayed mostly together as they hunted down the leaders and passed Demuth. Gradually, though, Smith began to lose contact with his Mexican and Kazakh companions.
Although they strove to reduce the gap, they ultimately could not. Edgar and Nortje were the fastest two men on the course, with Edgar logging the only sub-16 minute 5km, as they ran away to the gold and silver medal.
In doing so, Edgar earned a brilliant win with Nortje coming home for a hard-earned silver medal 31 seconds behind.
On the final lap of the run, Alarcon managed to strike ahead to take bronze ahead of Beisenbayev.
Women’s race
Prior to the race, it was fair to say that Barbara De Koning was the favourite.
She reiterated her early status by leading the way in the swim, recording a time of 10:07 which was the quickest by 6 seconds. Three women – Bridget Theunissen, Maryna Kyryk and Shanae Williams – were able to stay within contact though and quickly joined De Koning on the bike. For a moment it seemed that quartet would escape. That was until the hills shook up the race.
De Koning and Williams were able to pull clear from Theunissen and Kyryk on the inclines. While Kyryk lost over two minutes, Theunissen was joined by Romana Gajdošová (bronze medallist from Swakopmund last weekend) and Tanja Stroschneider. With a sterling effort on the bike, that trio managed to limit the gains of Williams and De Koning.
However, by the end of the bike, the gap between the lead pair and the chase was over 30 seconds.
De Koning started well on the run. Yet something was different this week. Whether it was the inclines on the bike, or on the run itself, that sapped her legs, she could only watch as Williams ran clear. That is not to diminish Williams, though. She was fantastic across the run and would go on to out-split De Koning by 36 seconds.
After a silver medal in Maselspoort earlier this year, Williams improved on that as she ran to victory in Troutbeck. On such a challenging course, her run time of 18:10 was impressive. Hopefully she will be able to take confidence from her performance into her next WTCS appearances.
De Koning ended up taking silver. A disappointment perhaps given her recent form but that would be to judge exceptionally harshly. She has been on fire in recent weeks and another medal was well-deserved after a tough race.
Almost two minutes behind Williams, Romana Gajdošová out-ran Stroschneider to win another bronze medal. Like her fellow medallists, the Slovakian is enjoying a good run of form and will no doubt look to translate that to upcoming WTCS and World Cup races.
View the full results here.
