The final African Cup race of 2022 took place in Dakhla, Morocco, with multiple athletes starting in the hope of securing crucial world rankings points. The first half of the Paris 2024 Olympic Qualification window closes in May 2023. As such, strong performances in Continental Cups now can be highly important in boosting an athlete’s ranking and getting them onto World Cup and WTCS start lists before the May in the hope of securing precious points.
Men’s Race
Racing over the Olympic distance, the men’s field had a couple of notable names on the start list. Among them were recent Americas Cup Manta winner Juan Jose Andrade Figueroa, ASICS World Triathlon Team member Badr Siwane and Emil Holm of Denmark, who finished 10th at WTCS Hamburg in 2021.
The early pace in the sea swim was set by German Magnus Männer and he stretched the field without quite breaking it. With Siwane ultimately not starting, only 30 men entered the water. As a result, Männer found himself alone in T1 without the support to launch a breakaway over the 40km bike course. As the field began to coalesce during the bike, three athletes tried to push the pace.
Dutchman Ian Pennekamp led the surge and quickly found Oliver Turner and Shiruba Taniguchi for company. Together, the trio developed a lead of over a minute. Further back, the rest of the field had clumped together into one larger pack with some of the weaker swimmers regaining lost time.
Onto the run, Pennekamp did not take long to drop Turner and Taniguchi. Earlier this year, Pennekamp raced at the World Winter Triathlon Championships and the World Winter Duathlon Championships; competing in December seemed to have brought out the best in him.
Further behind, though, the main pack had made it through T2 and the faster runners were on the charge. Led by Emil Holm, a small group of men separated themselves from the field and gradually whittled off athlete after athlete. Halfway into the 10km run, it seemed inevitable that Holm and Nathan Lessmann of France would pass Pennekamp and battle for the win.
In the end, Holm’s pacing strategy paid dividends and he had the burst in the closing stages to distance Lessmann and take the win, his first of a long season. Holm’s run was the fastest of the day and over two minutes faster than Pennekamp.
Lessmann took second in comfort. He was unable to add the win to his victory at the African Cup Hammamet earlier this year; nevertheless his result was a good way to close out the season.
Despite a late charge from Andrade Figueroa, Pennekamp managed to hold on for bronze.
Women’s Race
A slightly smaller field started the women’s race. Jolanda Annen and Margot Garabedian pushed the pace in the water and led the field into T1 with Tilly Anema of Britain on their feet. The pace was enough to fragment the field and a group of 11 athletes formed on the bike, including the woman wearing number 1, Yuka Sato.
There was little to shake up the group on the bike. By the time the athletes came into T2, attention had long since turned to the looming foot race.
One athlete missing from the front group was Celine Kaiser of Germany. After a recent win at the Asia Cup Ipoh, Kaiser came into this race in good form. A bad swim, however, cost her a chance of making the lead pack on the bike and she arrived in T2 almost two minutes behind the leaders.
Garabedian and Kristelle Congi of France were among the early leaders on the run. Until March 2022, Garebedian and Congi would have been team mates on the French squad, however since then Garabedian commenced her transition to race for Cambodia. In Dakhla, she therefore raced under the ITU banner.
Over the first half of the run, Garabedian, Congi, Sato and Anema distanced the rest of the field. Once Sato was dropped, though, the medallists were not in doubt. The only question would be their order.
A late attack from Garabedian saw her distance Congi by five seconds and take the win. Congi, meanwhile, managed to outrun Anema to hold on to silver. Anema’s bronze represented her first international medal in what was only her third international race.
The fastest run of the day actually went to Kaiser. She outran the next fastest runner, Garabedian, by 1 minute 32 seconds and took fifth place.
View the full results of the race here.
