In addition to the outstanding performances by Miguel Hidalgo and Lizeth Rueda Santos, the triathlon at the 2023 Pan American Games held plenty of talking points to track.
In addition to the dog that tagged along for the ride on the bike, the races saw a number of sub-plots, including breakaways, super splits, multi-sport endeavours and more.
Messias lets rip
Manoel Messias found himself out of contention in the men’s race as he arrived into T2. Having won two WTCS medals in 2023, in Abu Dhabi and Montreal, he was among those favoured to do well in Chile.
However, he lost 2 minutes to the leaders in the swim and then failed to make up meaningful time on the bike.
With the race lost, it would have been easy to treat the run as a formality, a box to simply tick off. Messias, though, had something different in mind.
He ripped a monster 29:49 split for the 10km. Not only was that the only split under the 30 minute mark. It was the fastest split by over a minute.
Crisanto Grajales, the bronze medallist, had the next fastest split in 30:54. Meanwhile the race winner, Miguel Hidalgo, clocked 30:57 for the 10km. Messias, though, was simply operating on a different plane.
His super split lifted him to a respectable 9th place and served as a reminder of the threat Messias poses on the run.
Rueda back at the Games
Twelve years after racing in the 10km open water, Lizeth Rueda Santos was back – and winning – as a triathlete.
In 2011, Rueda finished 10th in the 10km at Puerto Vallarta. That same year, she won a bronze medal at the World Junior Open Water Championships in the 7.5km event.
Now in her new sport, Rueda put in one of the best performances of her triathlon career as she claimed a Pan American Games gold.
In 2012, a year after her previous Games appearance, she went on to race in the 10km open water at the London Olympics. History may repeat itself in a way. Rueda is currently on course to qualify for the Paris Olympics next year, which would be her first in triathlon.
Alvarez attempts the double
Anahi Alvarez Corral, the winner of the World Cup in Huatulco, took on a double that fell somewhere between the inspiring and borderline ridiculos.
To start with, she took on the triathlon at the Pan American Games. However, after losing over 3 minutes in the swim to the lead pair of Rueda and Vittoria Lopes, she went on to record a DNF.
Alvarez, though, was not done for the day.
Later on, she was back to race on the track in the 5,000m. On the same day as the triathlon, she finished 6th in a time of 16:20.71. Her performance was 10 seconds off the season best she set in April and almost half a minute off her personal best. Still, it represented quite a bold attempted double.
Although the hunt for a double medal did not pay off, it was certainly a brave and interesting move.
Breakaway buddies
After a long season, there was a risk that the races in Chile could have become rather processional with the run determining the entire event.
Step forward Vittoria Lopes and Chase McQueen.
In the women’s and men’s races, Lopes and McQueen launched ambitious attacks on the bike. Lopes went instantly, dropping Rueda on the first lap and then building a lead of over a minute. Her advantage was cut down later on in the bike but she still arrived in T2 with a lead of over 30 seconds.
McQueen left his move a little later. On the final lap of the bike, after the initial three man breakaway had been caught, he blasted off into the distance. By the time he made it onto the run, his lead stood at over 40 seconds.
Both Lopes and McQueen would eventually be caught and missed out on medals. However, they lit up the race and made it significantly more entertaining than it otherwise might have been.
Medals aren’t awarded for racing with flair. If they were, though, Lopes and McQueen would have been in the mix for one.
Top home performers
In front of a rapturous home crowd, the Chilean team were under pressure to deliver.
Diego Moya got off to a good start, setting the fastest swim of the day. On the run, though, he was denied the mantle of being the top finisher for Chile.
Instead, Gaspar Riveros powered to 6th place. Moya could not quite contend with Riveros’ speed on the run and settled for 8th.
In the women’s event, Dominga Elena Jacome Espinoza impressed in 13th place. Still a Junior athlete (and the South American Junior champion), Jacome acquitted herself well against a star-studded field.
Although she lost some time in the water to Rueda and Lopes and the chase pack, she nonetheless rode up to the chasers. Late on in the run, she was caught and passed by a charging Gina Sereno, herself a World Cup medallist. Even then, Jacome still managed to beat WTCS athlete Luisa Baptista and World Cup medallist Mercedes Romero Orozco.
For a Junior athlete it was quite a performance and she can take plenty of heart from being Chile’s first woman across the line.
