With plenty of action to keep up with at the weekend, here are five stories that you may have missed.
Garabedian makes her first start for Cambodia
After previously racing for France, Margot Garabedian made her first international start for her new country of Cambodia at the Melilla European Cup.
Her status as a Cambodian athlete was confirmed one week ago, on 13th March. Prior to that, she had been racing under the ITU colours. While racing as an ITU athlete, Garabedian enjoyed some high points including a win at the African Cup in Dakhla.
As a Junior, Garabedian was one of the best performers in the history of the French Junior tests. She then went on to finish 7th at the World Junior Championships in 2014.
Going forward, expect to see more of her in the tri-suit of Cambodia. Garabedian currently sits 190th in the World Triathlon rankings and will likely be looking to improve upon that to secure World Cup and WTCS starts that would earn her and Cambodia a potential Olympic slot in the future.
A debut to remember
With established names such as Richard Murray, Alois Knabl and Jamie Riddle racing at the Nelson Mandela Bay African Cup, Panagiotis Bitados was not really among the first names to mention on the start list.
Bitados had never raced internationally before and, being born in 2003, was one of the youngest men in the field. With the range of experience against him and an Olympic distance course, Bitados was not an obvious medal contender.
However, he produced a brilliant performance to earn the silver medal. Check out the full race report here.
He was strong in all three disciplines, particularly on the bike. While he did not have the finish at the end to beat Riddle, a silver medal was an impressive first step in his international career.
Course stays on course
After winning the Oceania Junior Championships a few weeks ago, Bradley Course of Australia was back in the mix at the Oceania Sprint Championships.
In another accomplished performance, he came away with the silver medal in the U23 category behind frequent flyer on the WTCS scene Dylan McCullough.
In the overall category in Devonport, Course finished 7th, not far off his 5th place at the Oceania Cup in Wanaka in February. We have seen a number of Junior athletes produce some strong performances of late, especially in North America and in France.
Course, though, appears to be a man on a mission this year. He is now backing up performance after performance and taking on athletes considerably older and more experienced than him. While his running has been an asset at the Junior level, it seems his cycling is what has really stepped up.
When it comes to championship racing at the Junior level later this year, Course will no doubt be in the thick of the action. After the race experience he has accrued and the form he has shown so far, he could be one of the most rounded athletes on the Junior level.
Sian Rainsley on the return from injury
Back in January, we reported that Sian Rainsley would likely miss the start of the season following an ankle injury.
Rainsley suffered an AFTL grade 3 and a CFL grade 1 in her left ankle. Recently, though, Rainsley has progressed from cycling in a medical boot to cycling freely. Her ankle has not completely recovered however she has evidently made positive steps forward on her road to recovery.
With the next WTCS race a little under two months away, Rainsley might not have time to return to full race fitness for the next instalment in the Series. By the looks of things, though, it will not be long before we see her back in the mix.
Kiss finishes 4th at Hungarian XC Champs
At the Hungarian Cross Country Championships in Gödöllő, world U23 silver medallist Gergely Kiss finished 4th in the Senior race.
Taking on the 8.0km, course, Kiss produced a time of 25:34. His performance comes only five weeks after he logged a new personal best in the indoor 3000m.
To go with that, Kiss earned the silver medal in the U23 classification and was a part of the team that won the team competition.
Kiss is now in Spain with the Hungarian squad for a training camp. With his running looking increasingly good early in the season, it will be fascinating to see what he has in store at his first race.
