At the Setubal Triathlon, an elite trio of Portuguese athletes took on the middle distance relay.
Under the conditions of the relay, one athlete would swim 1.9km, a second athlete would cycle 90km and then a third would run 21.1km. Taking the win were the “Lidl Stars”.
As Lidl was the primary sponsor of the event, it made sense for them to enter a relay of athletes that they support. Two of the Lidl Stars were none other than WTCS athletes Ricardo Batista and Melanie Santos.
Mafalda Rosa, the European Junior Champion in the 10km Open Water, took on the swim. After she recorded a time of 20:27, she handed over to Ricardo Batista to tackle the bike.
Batista was only one week removed from winning a brilliant bronze medal at the New Plymouth World Cup. If he suffered from any lingering effects of jet lag (or the race), he did not show it. On a time trial bike, he ripped a split of 2:15:39.
In New Plymouth, Batista had been the joint-fastest man in the water and displayed his strength on the first lap of the bike as he pushed clear of the field. His blistering split at the weekend in Setubal was therefore no real surprise.
In 2022, Batista recorded his first ever top-10 finish at a WTCS race in Yokohama. In six weeks, Yokohama will be the next race on this year’s WTCS schedule and it looks like Batista is building to a similar top performance. His swimming and cycling are looking particularly promising and he could be one athlete that would benefit from a breakaway in the looming Olympic distance event.
After Batista finished, he handed over the timing chip for Melanie Santos to bring home on the run.
With the talent involved in the Lidl Stars team, it might have been the closest thing Portugal have to assembling their (triathlon) Avengers.
In what was essentially a training effort, Santos clocked an impressive 1:18:53. While Batista raced in New Zealand, Santos took on the European Cup in Quarteira last week and finished 6th. In Quarteira, she made it into the front pack breakaway and went on to record the seventh fastest run split of the day.
Both Batista and Santos have tough races on their hands to qualify for the Paris Olympic Games next year. Santos is currently the highest ranked Portuguese woman and is in pole position to secure her Olympic slot. Meanwhile, Batista will be competing with WTCS medallists Joao Silva, Vasco Vilaca and Joao Pereira for his spot.
With plenty of racing left to go this season, both will have to continue to improve and earn more top-10 finishes and medals to be sure of maximising their Olympic chances. If their recent form is anything to go by, though, both Santos and Batista can proceed with quiet confidence that they will get the job done.
