Junior racing returned to Europe for the first time in 2023 with the European Junior Cup in Melilla.
Both the men’s and women’s races came before the European Cup that was to follow in the evening. Far from being an appetiser, the Junior athletes provided some compelling racing of their own.
Women’s race
Prior to the race, we had noted that Margareta Vrablova already had four European Junior Cup wins to her name. With one more, she would draw level with Ivana Kuriackova with the most Junior Cup wins since 2009.
Against a primarily Spanish field, Vrablova wasted little time in stamping her authority on the race.
In wavy conditions, she was the first woman to exit the water and make it into T1. Her split of 11:03 indicated the difficulty of the swim. More importantly, it bought her 3 seconds over her next closest rival.
On the bike, only four athletes were able to go with Vrablova. Marta Novo Dios and Carla Martínez González had been on her feet out of the swim.
Meanwhile, Alejandra Seguí Soria and Lucía Piñón Pereira recovered deficits from the swim to bridge to the front group.
The leading quintet looked a cut above the chase pack. However, any questions about a race for the win were quickly extinguished when Vrablova flew through T2 and took the early lead on the run. It was an advantage she would not yield.
She would go on to run 32 seconds faster than the next best athlete to take the win by an impressive 44 seconds.
While the win was not in doubt, the silver and bronze medals were still to be determined.
Piñón could not keep up with the pace and slipped behind her compatriots. Novo was the next athlete to fall behind, leaving Seguí and Martínez to determine the colour of their medals.
Martínez stole a surreptitious glance at Seguí, evidently hoping to see some kind of weakness. Neither woman, though, cracked. They practically matched one another stride for stride into the final couple of hundred metres. In a sprint finish, it was Martínez that nudged ahead, earning the silver medal.
Seguí could take consolation with the bronze medal and the second fastest run split of the day.
Men’s race
Pelayo González Turrez put on a clinic in the men’s race.
It was his swim, though, that came a little out of the blue. Before the race, we had suggested his run would be the key weapon in his arsenal. In actual fact, it was his swim that did the damage.
His split of 9:40 was the best of the field and only one man, Jesús Vela Vela, was able to get within 10 seconds of him.
As in the Junior women’s race, a small group eventually managed to bridge to the lead duo early on the bike. Included in that group was Damian Suarez Couto who was disqualified (for reasons currently undisclosed).
Hector Tolsa García, the European Youth silver medallist from 2022, was among those to catch González and Vela. No one in the lead pack, though, was able to strike out alone. As a result, the seven men arrived in T2 in a line.
Soon after, González reaffirmed why we had expected a fast run from him. He ripped the second fastest split of the field, missing the fastest by 1 second, as he took control of the race.
Only Tolsa and Vela were able to keep him within range as the rest of the field simply melted away.
At no point, though, did González really look in danger of losing the race. While his margin of victory was only 5 seconds in the end, the maturity of his performance made it feel like a bigger win. González will certainly be a name to remember later this year when championship medals are on the line.
As an aside, González’s win also ensured that the athlete with the fastest swim split in both the Junior men’s and Junior women’s fields won their respective races.
Tolsa produced a fast finish to take silver. Vela took a hard-earned bronze medal.
View the full race results here.
