On Sunday, the first German Junior test took place in Leipzig.
The athletes competed over a 400m swim and then a 3000m run, with a break between. The top-16 performers of each gender were subsequently invited to Kienbaum to participate in the second test.
The top-3 finishers of each gender in Kienbaum would then be selected for the European Junior Cup in Caorle in May. In turn, the results at Caorle will determine the selection for the World Junior Championships in Hamburg.
Today, we will be breaking down the performances at the Kienbaum test.
As a reminder, in this test the athletes competed in a broken Sprint triathlon. To start with, they raced a 750m swim in a 25m pool. Some of the rules included a ban on drafting off the feet of another athlete in the same lane. Similarly, a false start would have earned a 3 second penalty.
After the swim, the athletes had a short break in which to dry themselves and head over to the next part of the test. In total, they had a little over 30 minutes in which to recover.
The second part of the test consisted of running into T1 and then riding 20km on the bike. Due in part to the constraints of the course, drafting was possible on the bike. After the bike, the athletes then instantly ran 5km as they would in a normal Sprint triathlon.
The starting order for the bike-run was staggered based on the swim results. That meant that anyone that lost time in the water would be chasing down the athletes ahead.
At the start of the mens and women’s results below you will see a graphic with an athlete’s finishing place, name, year of birth, region, swim time, bike time, run time and total time.
Women’s results
Mirjam Huber led the way in the swim and did not relinquish control for the remainder of the test. Her time of 9:07 in the water was 5 seconds faster than the next best athlete.
It was on the bike, though, where Huber really excelled. She had the second fastest split of the day and was one of two athletes to dip under 31 minutes. Last year, Huber finished 10th at the German Junior Championships in Lübeck. In the year since, it is clear she has made significant strides forward.
The fastest bike split went to Kjara Reckmann. At two years younger than Huber, Reckmann also had the second fastest swim split. As a result, the two athletes were tied going into the run.
Huber had the extra gear in the closing stages to out-run Reckmann by almost 6 seconds to take the win. In doing so, both confirmed their tickets to the European Junior Cup in Caorle.
Meanwhile, Marielle Bouchti had the fastest run of the day with 18:31.5. Having lost 32 seconds to Huber in the swim and then another 34 seconds on the bike, she started the run with a considerable gap to close. However she managed to claw back almost 50 seconds. In doing so, she separated herself from a small cluster of athletes that had come together on the bike, including Lisa Heisig, Finja Lodges and Fabienne Gericke.
Last year, Bouchti finished 11th at the German Junior Championships. In September, she raced her first European Junior Cup in Bled, finishing 23rd.
Of note, Bouchti was also the only woman under 19 minutes on the run. Gericke came close to dipping under 19 minutes on her way to 4th place. Antonia Seeman came even closer still as she ran 19:03.1 to finish 13th.
To delve a little further into the splits, Bouchti actually had the fastest combined time in the swim and run. The bike was therefore an important advantage for Huber and Reckmann.
Men’s results
Bavaria (Bayern) locked out the top-4 positions in what turned into an incredibly close men’s race. With less than 20 seconds separating the top-6 athletes, there was little to separate most of the field throughout the test.
Jakob von Müller led the way in the water with a split of 8:22. Last year, von Müller represented Germany at the World and European Junior Championships. At the former he finished 36th while at the latter he placed 18th.
In hot pursuit of von Müller were Malte Prüfert (who swam 8:26) and Till Krajenksi, who logged a time of 8:30.
Two of the highest returning finishers from last year’s German Junior Championships were next out of the water. Jan Scheffold, the runner-up in Lübeck, and Lukas Meckel, the 6th place finisher, both hit 8:33.
Then came the Bavarian. Jan Pluta emerged in 8:50 alongside Jan Semmler. Semmler’s twin brother, Tim, was only 5 seconds behind.
On the bike, the race tightened up even further. Pluta and the Semmler brothers reeled in those ahead and by the end of the course, thirteen athletes were in contention.
Holding the lead was von Müller, although now he was only 1 second ahead of Scheffold. A mere 1 second behind Scheffold was Meckel, while Pluta was only 2 seconds behind Scheffold.
In total, the top-12 men were covered by a mere 7 seconds going into the run. At that point, any one of them could have won.
It was Pluta that made the decisive move. With the fastest split of the day, he pulled clear and gained 10 seconds on the chasers. Moritz Göttler gradually moved up from 13th after the bike, picking off one athlete after another as he produced the second fastest run split.
Towards the end of the run, Pluta had the lead but a line of five men were close behind. The Semmler brothers led the way with Göttler, Meckel and Scheffold also pushing.
As Pluta closed in on his win, the Semmlers nudged ahead and inched away from the others. After running 2 seconds quicker, Tim managed to beat Jan by a mere 0.2 seconds. Both brothers managed to stamp their tickets to Caorle with Pluta and will be fascinating to see how the pair navigate racing internationally as brothers going forwards.
Their Bavarian team-mate Göttler was 4th home, only 1.2 seconds behind Jan Semmler. Scheffold and Meckel followed, each in 2 second increments. Less than 6 seconds covered 2nd through to 6th, highlighting just how tight the competition was for the men’s slots.
