With a home race in Osaka, an array of Japan’s best triathletes were determined to put on a show. With the Sprint distance on the agenda, the racing was as fast as promised by the organisers to the onlooking spectators.
Men’s race
Jumpei Furuya arrived in the city on the back of a win at the Asia Cup in Taizhou and it seemed that some parts of the field were determined to shake him off as quickly as possible.
Mitsuho Mochizuki led the way in the water, clocking 9:00 for the 750m, and dragged a small cluster of five men ahead of the pack. Among the leaders were Teppei Tokuyama and the reigning Asian Junior champion Amu Omuro. Omuro was the last to slide into the lead group and then a 10 second gap ticked by.
Furuya was the next athlete out and led the chase pack into T1. The first round, though, went to the leading six.
They hurried through transition and made some early gains on the bike as the chase initially struggled to organise themselves. With Furuya the strongest cyclist in the chase pack, several men seemed to be willing to let him shoulder the burden of closing the gap.
Dan Tomiuchi took up the pace in the breakaway but soon after Omuro began to lose contact. As Omuro fell back, Furuya began to move up. With help from Robin Elg of Hong Kong, Tzu I Pan of Taiwan and Koki Yamamoto of Japan, Furuya gave up on hauling the chase pack forward; instead, he and his three companions made the jump themselves.
First the quartet passed Omuro. With the scent of the leading five in their noses, the chasers upped the ante.
Not long after, the deficit had been eradicated.
With Furuya in the newly formed front pack of nine, Mochizuki tried to push clear off the front again but his move was marked. Yamamoto even had a little dig off the front. Soon, though, the pack began to work well together as they left the rest of the field behind.
Once the lead group made it into T2, with a lead of over a minute, it was easy to see why the original leaders had hoped to escape Furuya. After a flawless transition, he hit the front of the race to assume a control he would not relinquish.
Elg and Yamamoto were able to stay with him for the longest yet eventually fell away as Furuya logged the fastest run split of the day. His 15:48 was the only split under 16 minutes and he cruised to the win.
Elg narrowly missed dipping under 16 minutes on his way to silver as he clocked 16:03. Yamamoto ran through to take a solid 3rd place.
Women’s race
The swim was a tale of Japanese speed as all ten of the top splits came from home athletes.
Minori Ikeno led the way in 9:55 with four women in close contact. Yuka Sato was next out with Miyu Sakai, Sarika Nakayama and Niina Kishimoto following. After Kishimoto, a 16 second gap formed until the next woman escaped. When Manami Hayashi exited the water next, she could just about make out the leading quintet as they escaped up the road.
Although Hayashi and the chase battled on the bike, the leaders were too strong and pulled away.
With Ikeno and Sato pulling big turns, the original 16 second lead doubled over the first half of the bike. By the end of the 20km, the gap grew to around 45 seconds.
Having decimated the field, the lead pack now had to fight out the medals amongst themselves. Kishimoto was the first to make a move as she flew through transition and onto the run. Sato was the only athlete able to respond and began the long chase.
Despite Sato’s best efforts, Kishimoto began to build a lead. She cruised to a 17:52 5km, the fastest of the day, to distance herself from her experienced rival. Sato would hold on to take silver after a strong all-round display.
Bronze, however, was very much up in the air.
Sakai sat in 3rd place but Hayashi was charging on the run. First she passed Ikeno and then put Nakayama in her sights. Sakai gritted her teeth to hold on as Hayashi closed. Indeed in the final kilometre Hayashi overtook Nakayama.
In the end, though, Sakai made it to the finish line before Hayashi could get her. After her stirring run, Hayashi had to settle for 4th place.
You can view the full results here.
