From sixty-eight men and fifty-seven women, thirty remained in each of the finals at the European Junior Cup in Tiszaujvaros.
After Hungary had swept all five of the heats the day prior, they were the obvious favourites for the wins. Fanni Szalai and Nora Romina Nádas had been dominant on the women’s side, while Márton Kropkó, Zalán Hóbor and Gyula Kovács breezed through the men’s heats.
A slightly longer route awaited the athletes in the final. The swim remained the same at 500m. Both the bike and run, though, had been extended, with the latter reaching 12.5km (up from 12km) and the latter hitting 3.6km (up from 3.3km).
However, the changes to the course made no difference to the outcome of the races. A Hungarian coronation had been expected and that is exactly what took place.
Women’s race
Nora Romina Nádas seized control of the final from the first strokes of the swim. Looking in complete control, she clocked a split of 6:46 and led for essentially the entire way.
In the final metres, Fanni Szalai drew alongside Nádas and exited with her teammate. Jamie Harker, Isabella Hayes, Sonja De Koning and Laura Inez Papp followed in quick succession but the Hungarian duo had already built a slim advantage by the time they arrived in T1.
On the first lap of the bike, the six leaders came together. However, Papp was eventually dropped before the second lap began. That left five women to drive the pace. Nadas jumped out of her saddle to launch a big injection of speed early on in the second lap but Harker and Szalai had it covered.
In the gap between the lead and chase packs, Papp and Lili Dobi tried to work together to erase the gap. The leaders, though, were simply too strong and the Papp-Dobi duo slipped further behind.
Hayes was the next to try to up the tempo but again her partners were equal to the move. Their gap grew to a minute and then beyond. As the bike wore on, the size of their advantage seemed to sap the leaders’ momentum. Having done enough to neutralise the rest of the field, the pack could afford to sit on the wheel of the leader.
Although they shared the work, as many as three of the leaders were able to free-wheel. Given the race situation, it made sense to keep their legs as fresh as possible. It was as T2 came into view that Nádas picked the pace back up.
Nádas led the group into and then out of transition. Szalai, though, lost a few seconds to some errant running shoes and emerged last of the leaders. At first those seconds seemed like they could have been valuable. That was until Szalai blew everyone away on the run.
She motored past Nádas and then did not look back as she pressed ahead.
With a smooth style, it looks as every drop of energy expended drives her forward, like she’s carried by her own momentum. Effortless might be the wrong word, but once up to speed her turnover is so high it is almost like watching a kind of self-perpetuating machine. As soo as Szalai hit her stride, the machine simply whirs until it carries her to the finish line.
By the time she made it to the end, her lead over Nádas was 52 seconds.
It was a supreme display and the sign of a very special talent.
Nádas had a very good race to claim the silver medal. She was narrowly denied the second fastest run split of the day and matched her result from the same event in 2022. Rounding out the medals was De Koning.
The Dutch woman had enough speed at the end to see off both Hayes and Harker to take a second straight European Junior Cup medal after her bronze in Holten.
De Koning races for the Netherlands but counts some Hungarian ancestry in her heritage. In a way, then, Hungary had a connection to each member of the women’s podium.
Men’s race
Three Hungarian men broke clear of the field over the 500m swim.
Leading the way was Márton Kropkó, the World Junior Aquathlon champion, while Gergő Gyula Soós and Zalán Hóbor were in hot pursuit.
Gyula Kovács, the winner of the European Junior Cup in Olsztyn, was the next out, 13 seconds down on Kropkó. Over the run to T1 and then transition itself, though, Kovács was able to reduce the margin to 8 seconds. He pushed a big effort early on the bike and soon joined his three compatriots at the front of the race.
Tin Rebic of Croatia had been 12 seconds down out of transition and then a yawning chasm until the next men. Unfortunately for Rebic, he was not able to bridge to the leaders and so was forced to ride alone in no-man’s-land. He was clearly not too dispirited by his circumstances, though, as he hit a shaka sign to the passing cameraman.
As Rebic slipped back, the Hungarian team pursuit pushed the lead from half a minute to over a minute. Each man took his turn and they looked a well-oiled machine as they gobbled up the remaining kilometres.
Soós was dropped early on the run. At the end of the first run lap, Kropkó dangled off back of the lead pair too. Yet Hóbor seemed reticent to set the pace. Early in the second lap he slowed to force Kovács to set the pace. In turn, that opened the door for Kropkó to get back onto the front.
Kropkó then used his window of opportunity to set the pace. Having followed Kovács, Hóbor then moved over to follow new feet.
The trio stayed together until the finish but at the decisive moment Kropkó slipped behind again. With the finish line in sight, Kovács chared for the line. Although he seemed extended, Kovács had kept Hóbor behind and clinging to his coattails. Then Hóbor pumped his legs into overdrive.
From nowhere, he unleashed a monstrous kick and gained 5 seconds over his rival in barely 200m. Such was his speed, he resembled a race horse more than a human.
With Kovács unable to respond, Hóbor claimed the first Junior win of his career. Kovács took a hard-earned silver while Kropkó took bronze. In the end, the entire men’s top-8 were Hungarian in what was a perfect day for the home team.
You can view the full results here.
