At the Americas Cup in Manta, Ecuador, the home team delivered a series of impressive results. Over the Sprint distance race, they came away with multiple medals amid an array of fast displays.
However, they did not have the event all their own way and several athletes were on hand to pip them to spots on the podium as well as a gold medal.
Men’s race
A rapid swim from Ramón Armando Matute and Chris Deegan appeared to have broken up the field in the men’s race. When the lead pair ran into T1, only two men were within 20 seconds of them. Gabriel Terán Carvajal and David Vega Campoverde, both Ecuadorian teammates of Matute, were able to remain fairly close to the lead pair. Whereas the former closed the gap on the bike, the latter could not make the jump to the leaders.
Further back, the likes of Alejandro Rodriguez Diez and Pavlos Antoniades had lost over 30 seconds and tried to gather themselves in the scrambled chase pack.
Antoniades was able to piece together the best bike split of the day (29:32) and in doing so reeled in the leaders as part of a nine man pack. Rodriguez was also a part of the group, as were João Teixeira Alvares of Brazil and Matthew McGoey of America.
Throughout the bike, though, Deegan, Matute and Terán were comfortable.
Having been able to conserve his energy a little more once the chasers made it to the front, Terán was initially among the leaders on the run. Rodriguez and Antoniades hung with him and Deegan and Matute followed a few metres back.
Gradually, the pace became a little too high for Antoniades and Rodriguez and Terán consolidated their lead at the front. With home support behind him, Terán tried to seal victory with a series of surges in pace. His Cuban rival, Rodriguez, was equal to each.
Instead, it came down a little sprint to separate the pair and Rodriguez had the better finish. With a big push, he earned a 3 second gap over Terán that he defended to the line. As a result, Rodriguez claimed his first international win of the year.
Terán took the silver medal and Antoniades came home next to claim the bronze.
Women’s race
In a tightly-bunched field, Paula Vega of Ecuador was the first to exit from the swim. She emerged in a time of 9:58 with Leslie Amat Alvarez next to her.
Almost everyone racing managed to stick together in the swim, with only one athlete losing any major time. The bike, however, thinned the group further as two more women were dropped. That left eleven athletes to ride together.
Alongside Vega and Amat, Giovanna Lacerda and Paula Jara rode at the front and sat in control of the race. Fresh off her silver medal at the Americas Junior Championships, Bivian Andrea Luisita Diaz Fuentes was also enjoying a good race with the leaders.
A fast T2 put Vega and Lacerda in control of the race although neither Amat and Vega lost too much time. Gradually, though, the strength of Vega began to tell.
She pulled away from her rivals on the back of a field-leading 5km split of 17:37. Lacerda was able to stay closest to the Ecuadorian athlete but could not close the gap.
Vega therefore took the win by 13 seconds with Lacerda crossing next. Jara then rounded out the podium to give Ecuador two women on the podium.
You can view the full results here.
