This weekend will see Germany’s top Junior triathletes compete for the final slots for this year’s World and European Junior Championships. The DTU Youth Cup in Jena (Thuringia) will double as a last-chance saloon for many of the country’s brightest young talents.
Following the results of the European Junior Cup in Caorle, the German Junior women have qualified three slots for the World Junior Championships, the allocation of which was determined by the outcome of the racing in Italy.
Felipa Herrmann, Kjara Reckmann and Marielle Bouchti sealed their places in Caorle. To do so, each needed to record a top-34 finish. Bouchti led the way with her 12th place, while Herrmann and Reckmann followed in 16th and 26th, respectively.
Moreover Bouchti and Herrmann hit the requirements for the European Junior Championships in Balikesir. That leaves one final women’s Junior women’s place for Europeans up for grabs in Jena (as the criteria for the World and European Junior Championships were not identical). Whoever crosses the line first will add themselves to the team in Turkey.
Meanwhile, after a disappointing showing in Caorle, the German men did not qualify any slots for Hamburg. However, their saving grace was that as hosts of the event they will receive an additional slot.
As a result there is one place on the line in Jena. The winner of the Junior men’s race this weekend will therefore get the golden ticket to Hamburg.
Moreover the top-3 in Jena finishers will determine the qualifiers for the European Junior Championships.
When it comes to the racing itself at the Youth Cup, the athletes will tackle a double Super Sprint format. Each athlete will have to complete a 300m swim, 6km bike and 1.5km run twice.
Herrmann will not be in Jena but Bouchti will be racing. Her result in Caorle renders her as one of the favourites, although with bigger fish to fry later in the summer she might train through this event.
That could open the door for someone like Mirjam Huber, the winner of the Junior tests in Kienbaum earlier in the year. Huber technically hit the criteria to qualify for Hamburg in Caorle; she finished 31st. It was simply her misfortune that three of her compatriots managed to get into the final ahead of her while she had to look on having narrowly missed out (the top-30 made the final).
Huber will not have it all her own way in Jena, though. Isabel Altendorfer and Johanna Uherek will also be in the mix and will push her throughout.
On the men’s side, Jan Pluta won the Kienbaum test and was the best of the German male finishers in Caorle (in 51st). He will likely have a good shot of sealing his championship selection this weekend. However, his Bavarian team mates, Moritz Göttler, Jan Semmler and Tim Semmler, will push him close.
The Semmler brothers rounded out the podium in Kienbaum and have the strength on the bike to test Pluta. Similarly the DTU highlighted Lukas Meckel and Henning Scholl as further athletes to watch in their press release.
Meckel was the silver medallist at last year’s German Junior Championships and raced at the 2022 European Junior Championships. With that experience under his belt, expect him to keep a cool head in the closing stages in Jena. The race for the win will undoubtedly be tight but Meckel is a good bet to make the podium and qualify for Balikesir.
