The hardy few held firm, even in the depths of November, taking on the Olympic distance at the African Cup in Agadir.
While the end of the season came almost two months ago for many, several remained on the hunt for world ranking points and international medals. As small as the fields were in Agadir, they were packed with potential race winners and neither the men’s or women’s races had a clear favourite when the starter’s horn sounded.
Men’s race
Ben Dijkstra stepped onto the start line in Agadir as the man to watch having won the previous African Cup in Berges du Lac, Tunisia.
However, the likes of Nan Oliveras, who won the Larache African Cup in the summer, and Eric Diener, the 4th place finisher at the 2022 World U23 Championships and himself on a run of three straight Continental Cup top-5 finishes, made for clear obstacles to another Dijkstra victory.
In a sign of the depth of the field, none of the three actually made the initial front pack out of the water. Instead, as Daniel Dixon ripped an 18:34 split for the 1500m, Dijkstra fared best as he limited his loss to 30 seconds.
Dixon had Kevin Tarek Viñuela Gonzalez for company and was clearly in the mood to race aggressively. Between them, the front duo had the best part of a 10 second advantage to play with heading into T1.
Dixon’s compatriots, Christopher Perham and Samuel Dickinson, the bronze medallist at the Tongyeong World Cup, soon made up the ground, as did Vicente Hernandez, to create a lead pack of five. With Dickinson’s power on the bike an asset of particular note, the quintet threatened to ride away from the field.
Dijkstra headed up a line of nine men and had to push the early kilometres to eat into the half-minute deficit. Oliveras and Diener pulled alongside him, having lost a few seconds to the Brit in the water. With the likes of Gregor Payet and Ian Pennekamp also on hand to assist the chase, the group began to whittle down the gap to the leaders.
The efforts of the front five were not enough to keep the chasers at bay and the packs eventually merged. Dixon and Dickinson continued to ride aggressively and tried to keep the group honest. The main pack, though, remained mostly together.
Diener, Perham and Viñuela had the best transitions but it was Oliveras that soon took the lead. From there he did not look back.
The Spanish athlete crushed the fastest 10km of the field (29:25) and was the only man to break the 30 minute barrier. Diener was close to doing the same as he clocked 30:04 but nevertheless was beaten into 2nd place by 35 seconds.
Dijkstra then rounded out the podium in 3rd place.
Women’s race
Like Dijkstra, Roksana Slupek arrived in Morocco with high expectations having recently won in Tunisia. Keen to carry her form forwards, she took control of the race from the start.
The Polish athlete led the swim alongside Sarika Nakayama, with the pair hitting times of 21:19 and 21:23, respectively. Alessia Orla followed a few seconds behind Nakayama as a clear lead trio formed.
The next closest athletes, Juri Ide and Elizabeth Carr were over 15 seconds down and were unable to get onto the wheels of the leaders in the bike. Although Orla did not finish, leaving only Slupek and Nakayama at the front, they would not be caught.
Instead, Ide and Carr slipped back into the larger chase group. With only twelve women racing, though, there were not enough athletes in the chase to overpower the leaders.
Ivana Kuriackova, Tanja Stroschneider and Katharina Möller were among those to try to bring back Slupek and Nakayama. Still, the gap remained stubbornly in place.
Once Slupek dropped Nakayama on the run, the gold medal was all but decided. With no one else in sight, she cruised to another international win, this time by 68 seconds.
From the chase pack, Carr popped the fastest run split of the field (33:46) to elevate herself to the silver medal. While she was passed by Carr, Nakayama managed to hold off the rest of the chase pack to seal 3rd place.
You can view the full results here.
