Hangzhou, China, played host to arguably the biggest race on the Asian triathlon calendar over the past two days. Taking place every four years (although this year was the 2022 iteration after delays), the Asian Games doubled as the de facto Asian Championships over the Olympic distance.
Regarded in many Asian countries as being second only to the Olympic Games in terms of stature, success at the competition carries immense prestige. Indeed, for some the Asian Games hold greater significance than the Olympics given the degree of local rivalries.
In Hangzhou, the athletes took on a fast course in stifling heat. In both races, experience ultimately won the day.
Men’s race
The men’s race was the first of the triathlon events and Kenji Nener blasted his way to a superb victory. Nener arrived in Hangzhou having secured 15th place overall in the WTCS for 2023. In doing so he stood as the highest ranked Asian athlete in the Series.
After a consistent season, all he was missing a gold medal to cap everything off.
He got off to an aggressive start, leading the swim in 18:17. His compatriot, Makoto Odakura, a recent medallist at the Weihai World Cup, was right behind, as was Ayan Beisenbayev of Kazakhstan.
In total, a front group of eight entered T1 in quick succession and then a gap of almost a minute formed.
If Nener had pushed the pace during the swim, what came next on the bike was of a different order altogether. He produced a monstrous bike split, clocking 56:10. The next quickest man, Mingxu Li of China, was almost 3 minutes slower in 59:08. When Nener arrived in T2, he had all of the time in the world to get through transition and onto the run.
However, the heat and his brutal effort had exacted a heavy toll. As much as Nener had the lead, the speed on foot lay with the men behind.
Odakura and Beisenbayev ate into Nener’s lead at virtually every stage of the run. The lead came down to 2 minutes and Odakura forged ahead, leaving Beisenbayev in pursuit of his countryman.
Before long, Odakura had whittled the lead to under a minute.
Nener, though, had done enough. His solo attack yielded the ultimate reward as he crossed the line to take the gold medal. Odakura settled for silver 55 seconds later, while Beisenbayev took the bronze medal.
Women’s race
Yuko Takahashi arrived in Hangzhou as the defending Asian Games champion. From the first stroke of the swim, she gave her rivals no respite as she sought to add another gold medal to her collection.
Takahashi was a class apart in the water, clocking 19:11. Her time would have put her at the head of the chase group in the men’s race. Xinyu Lin and Yifan Yang were the next out of the water but lost around 45 seconds to Takahashi. The Chinese duo hopped onto their bikes and battled to claw back the deficit. Their Japanese rival, however, was long gone.
Even as Bailee Brown of Hong Kong worked with the two chasers, Takahashi extended her lead. She produced the fastest split of the field in 1:02:04 whereas Brown was the next quickest in 1:02:25.
With a lead hovering around the minute mark, Takahashi was too experienced to let the gold medal slip through her fingers. Lin managed to out-split Takahashi over the 10km run but could not close the gap.
In the end, Takahashi won by 26 seconds having led for every step of the race.
Lin took 2nd place and Yang finished 3rd as China took two medals before a thrilled home crowd. As had the story in the men’s race the day prior, though, the gold medal would be travelling back to Japan.
You can view the full results here.
