There are perks to being an international triathlete.
Being able to relax on the gorgeous beaches of Salinas, Ecuador, after racing certainly have to be up there as one of the more enjoyable aspects of the sport. Before enjoying the beaches, though, the athletes taking on the Americas Cup in Salinas first had to tackle the Sprint distance triathlon at hand.
Women’s race
In water hitting 25°C, the women dove into a non-wetsuit swim in the sea. After some early jockeying for position, it was Maryna Kyryk that led the way. She emerged first in 9:29 with Cuban athlete Leslie Amat Alvarez next out, 4 seconds behind.
Kyryk had managed to split the filed in half with the swim and only around a dozen athletes were able to keep within contact of her. That number soon dwindled as Kyryk and Amat led a surge at the front of the race, whittling down the field into a front pack of six women.
Those to also make it into the front group were Cecilia Perez, Marcela Peñafiel, Paula Vega and Paula Jara. With the leaders taking their turns and hammering the pace, they put almost a minute into the chase. That the winner would come from the lead group seemed a foregone conclusion when they arrived into T2. The only question was who would be the one to make the decisive move.
Peñafiel and Kyryk were the first to lose touch as Perez and Jara jumped to the head of the race. Having already raced at WTCS Abu Dhabi and the New Plymouth World Cup this year, Perez arrived in Salinas in good form. Jara, though, would not let her escape. Similarly Amat and Vega refused to budge.
As Perez injected another burst of pace, Vega was the next athlete to peel off from the group. Not long after, Amat began to lose contact, although she fought hard to reconnect with the lead duo. Gradually, though, Perez and Jara slipped out of her reach.
Into the closing stages, then, it was a straight shoot out between Jara and Perez. Jara looked strong and had home fans rooting for her. However Perez’s experience told as she attacked in the final stages to take the win by 14 seconds. Jara took a well-deserved silver medal in her first race of the season while Amat came home in 3rd place.
Men’s race
The sea proved to be the point of difference in the early stages of the men’s race. Mitsuho Mochizuki of Japan and Ramon Armando Matute of Ecuador stole a march on the field as they navigated the waves. As the winner of the Viña del Mar Americas Cup from November, Matute was looking to add another win to his name.
In Mochizuki he found the perfect accomplice.
As a large chase group formed behind the lead duo on the bike, one that included Gabriel Terán Carvajal, Vitalii Vorontsov and Juan Jose Andrade Figueroa, to close the slender lead. Neither Mochizuki nor Matute, though, were willing to yield.
The pair thundered around the three laps. Even as the chase could see the leaders at times, they could not reduce the deficit. Indeed at times Mochizuki looked like someone had dropped a match into a box of fireworks such was his effervescence. Such was his eagerness, he even pulled away from Matute and arrived in T2 alone.
With a small gap to defend, Mochizuki knew he would have to run like the wind and in the opening metres of the run he did just that. As Matute and then the chase racked their bikes, Mochizuki sprinted the opening kilometre.
Matute, however, remained composed.
He kept Mochizuki in sight and eased onto his shoulder across the opening half of the run. After such a massive effort, Mochizuki began to fade as Matute took control of the race.
Vorontsov was the next to appear beside the Japanese athlete and he soon went haring away in pursuit of Matute. Stranded precariously in 3rd, Mochizuki tried to battle on. Yet Andrade and Erik Yamir Ramos Croda were closing fast.
Up ahead, Vorontsov continued his charge towards a field-leading run split, but he could not bridge to Matute. In the end, Matute gave the home fans a win to celebrate as he crossed the line 17 seconds ahead of his Ukrainian rival.
With a gap after Vorontsov, all eyes turned to who would win the bronze medal. From the vantage point of the finish line, Mochizuki came into view, but so too did Andrade and Ramos. Mochizuki’s arms swung wildly as he tried to force more speed into his legs. After so much work on the swim and bike, there was only so much they could give.
In the final moments, Andrade kicked clear to seal the bronze. Ramos also darted ahead, finishing only 2 seconds off the podium. Then came Mochizuki. He did not get a medal for his efforts but he certainly would have deserved one. After a valiant showing, if anyone deserved to recline on the beaches of Salinas, it was him.
View the full results here.
