After the action of the Senior races at the World Duathlon Championships, attention turned to the Junior races.
Neither the Junior men’s nor the Junior women’s field were the largest, however both contained a number of high profile emerging talents. Pelayo González Turrez, the recent winner of the European Junior Cup in Melilla, and João Nuno Batista, the 2021 World Junior silver medallist, were perhaps the standout names.
However, any possibility of a tightly-fought race was quickly squashed by González.
In the opening 5km run, he gave a hint of his form as he cruised to a 14:44 split to share the lead with Batista. Only Kuba Gajda of Poland was able to get withing 10 seconds of Batitsa and González while the rest of the field languished further adrift.
It was on the bike that González truly flexed. Without missing a beat, he hammered a 31:11 split over the 20km; by way of comparison, Batista could only manage a 33:00.
Gajda quickly caught Batista while Nicolo’ Astori and Pedro Carvalho also bolstered the strength of the pack to four. Astori arrived in Ibiza as the reigning European Junior Duathlon champion. González, though, was on another level altogether.
When he arrived into T2 he could afford to take his time. Nevertheless he ripped an 8:07 split for the final 2.5km, the second fast of the day. In doing so, he won by 1 minute 56 seconds.
Most ominously, he looked like he had more left in the tank at the end of the run too.
Behind González the chase pack arrived in T2. Batista and Gajda had shown themselves to be the better runners in the opening 5km. Moreover both had been issued with 10 second penalties for being late to the briefing and served them in the 5km; their run times were actually more impressive than the raw numbers showed.
It was therefore no surprise when the pair moved clear of Astori and Carvalho.
In the end, Batista had too much for Gajda and ran an 8:05, the fastest of the day, to seal silver. After his bronze medal at the European Junior Cup in Quarteira in March, Batista edged closer to a first international gold of the year.
Gajda still managed a respectable 8:12 to take bronze.
After winning the European Junior Duathlon title earlier this year, Noemi Bogiatto was the early favourite in the Junior women’s race.
Yet it was Maja Wąsik that stole a 5 second lead on the opening 5km. With a time of 17:58, she was the only athlete to break 18 minutes in the field. An Italian duo of Noemi Bogiatto and Eleonora Demarchi plus a Spanish duo of Ana Gómez Carballo and Lucia Gracia Sancho were close by, though, and quickly overcame a 5 second deficit on the bike.
Cassilda Carvalho, Alice Alessandri, Nora Romina Nádas also bridged to the lead pack on the bike which meant that eight of the eleven starters were in the front group.
While the group shared the work load on the bike, there was no real attempt to take control of the race by anyone. Bogiatto and Gracia were often on the front but for the most part the pack rode together and preserved their legs for the final 2.5km run.
Wąsik tried to repeat her fast opening run and pushed the pace early from T2. This time, however, the field did not give her an inch. Instead, Bogiatto pulled clear with Gracia and Demarchi on her hip.
In the final stretch, the Italians managed to put a bit of daylight between them and Gracia. In the sprint finish that followed, Bogiatto managed to fend off her compatriot to take the world title by 1 second.
Gracia arrived in 3rd, only 5 seconds behind Bogiatto.
View the full Junior results here.
