Across two women’s semi-finals and three men’s semi-finals, the fields at the European Championships in Balikesir have been cut down to the final thirty.
With only two women’s semi-finals, the top-14 finishers would head straight into the final. The last two spaces would then go to the fastest two losers to take the final number to thirty.
In the first women’s semi-final Tanja Neubert, Barbara De Koning and Jessica Fullagar crossed together in 24:12, with Neubert being awarded the win.
Although Anja Weber and Michaela Sterbova pushed the pace in the swim, the field soon came back together on the bike. Before long, though, Neubert and Fullagar began to stretch the field as they raised the tempo.
Having emerged from T1 with the German and the Brit, the likes of Alberte Kjaer Pedersen and Anouk Sterkers suddenly found themselves on the back foot. De Koning and Sara Guerrero Manso were on hand to lend Neubert and Fullagar further support to keep the pressure on.
During the run, Pedersen was able to jump through the standings on the run to finish 5th, only 4 seconds behind the leaders and 3 seconds behind Guerrero.
Angelica Prestia, Sophia Green, Finja Schierl, Candice Denizot and Anouk Sterkers rounded out the top-10. Sofiya Pryyma, Marit Van Den Berg, Sterbova, María Casals Mojica and Maria Tomé were the other women to qualify for the final.
There was further encouragement for the German team in the second women’s semi-final as Selina Klamt crossed in 1st place with the same time as Audrey Merle.
Klamt had been the second woman out of the water having been able to hang on the feet of Mathilde Gautier. Along with Nora Gmür, they tried to drive the pace early on in the bike but were quickly caught. An eight-woman front pack soon formed led by Merle. A huge split by Anne Holm then vaulted her up into contention.
A chase pack containing the likes of Jule Behrens and Costanza Arpinelli hung around 20 seconds behind the leaders. That gap did not prove overly difficult to close on the run.
While Klamt, Merle, Gautier and Gmür cruised to the finish, Behrens and Arpinelli began to pick off athletes ahead.
Tilly Anema and Magdalena Sudak crossed a few seconds after Gmür and then came Behrens. The former European Junior champion was denied the fastest run split as Carina Reicht (5:48) ripped through the field to take 8th place. Arpinelli then beat Cecilia Santamaria Surroca by 1 second as they sealed 9th and 10th.
The final qualifiers were Inês Rico, Annabel Morton, Julia Bröcker, Holm and Laura Holánszky.
Meanwhile, Richard Murray won the first men’s semi-final in comprehensive style.
Alessio Crociani dropped the best swim split, cracking 2:59 over the 270m. The field soon came together on the bike, though. With Murray keeping a high pace, there was no real scope for anyone to escape off the front and a couple of men lost contact with the last wheel.
Murray then sealed the win on the run, crossing the line 4 seconds ahead of Crociani.
Baptiste Passemard followed with Lasse Nygaard Priester, Jonas Osterholt, Hamish Reilly, Michael Ziegler, Vitali Vorontsov and Jan Volar completing the top-9. Gergely Kiss was forced to wait for the results of the next semi-finals in 10th.
After his younger brother won his semi-final in the Junior men’s competition, Ricardo Batista matched the feat in the second semi-final.
Batista emerged on Fabian Meeusen’s feet out of the swim and was the first man out of T1. From there, he exploded onto the bike course. Clocking a time of 11:49 for the 8km, Batista out-split the next fastest rider (his teammate, Tiago Fonesca) by 17 seconds. Over the course of the run, Batista was able to shut down his effort and coast to the win by 8 seconds.
After a dominant semi-final, he will be a man to watch in the final.
With the pack mostly staying together behind Batista, the race came down to the run. Briac Tence was the next man to finish while Emil Holm took 3rd.
Kamil Kulik, Fonesca, Esteban Basanta Fouz, Christopher Perham, Mitch Kolkman and Samuele Angelini followed to seal automatic slots in the final. Zsombor Dévay crossed in 10th although his time was slower than that of his compatriot Kiss in the first semi-final.
A combination of Alexis Lherieau and Jan Diener lit up the bike in the final semi-final as they tried to forge clear.
Coming out of the water, they had been split by the eventual race winner, Nicola Azzano. On the bike, though Lherieau and Diener dropped the hammer. Although a pack of ten gave chase, they could not shut the 10 second gap to the leaders.
Azzano, Itamar Levanon and Jan Bader ran through on the run to nudge ahead of the breakaway pair. Lherieau and Diener crossed safely together in 4th and 5th, only 5 seconds behind Azzano. If they can work with someone like Batista in the final, a major breakaway could be in store.
Jannik Schaufler, Noah Servais, Felix Duchampt and Gonçalo Oliveira were the other men to qualify for the final.
However, in a twist, all three of the fastest non-qualifiers came from the first semi-final. Kiss qualified courtesy of his 10th place while Sebastian Wernersen and Thomas Windischbauer made it after finishing 11th and 12th.
After several promising races, then, the finals are locked in. At this stage, the identity of the ultimate winner will be anyone’s guess.
