The end of the European season is in sight. At one of the final European Junior Cups of the year, a wealth of talent descended upon Dublin. Among the standout names were Gregor Rasva, Jack Crome and Liis Kapten, each of whom had already claimed gold at European Junior Cups in 2023.
In both Sprint distance events, breakaways proved decisive and both winners claimed their golds after striking clear with one other athlete.
Men’s race
Gregor Rasva and Jack Crome ripped through the field in the swim. Crome led the way in a time of 9:01 while Rasva clocked 9:03. No one managed to get within 20 seconds of the lead pair.
Senan McDonnell led the chase out of T1 to the cheers of home fans and Antoine L’hôte pushed alongside him. However Crome and Rasva had already vanished up the road.
With the pack organising themselves behind, the lead pair fought to defend their 20 second gap. Amid the cat-and-mouse game, Cis Huyghe and Adam Fouchal took over the chase group and whittled the lead down. In turn, that provoked a response from Rasva as he dropped a big turn.
Crome then took over to return the lead to 20 seconds.
The chase was not beaten, though, and L’hôte, Fouchal and McDonnell continued to drive the tempo. Over the second half of the bike, the efforts of the chase came to fruition and the deficit tumbled.
Crome and Rasva just about made it to T2 before being caught although their lead had become marginal at best.
The leaders had two of the best transitions of the field and pushed on. Yet Fouchal was soon with them while L’hôte hung a few metres behind.
After his efforts in the first two disciplines, Crome dropped away, leaving Rasva and Fouchal to battle out the gold. Neither could quite break one another and so the race came down to a sprint finish.
Fouchal initially seemed to get the jump on his Estonian rival but Rasva denied the Frenchman with a final kick for the line. As a result, he made it two wins in two weekends after claiming a gold medal in Chisinau.
Fouchal settled for silver while L’hôte crossed 30 seconds later to take bronze.
Women’s race
The women’s race saw a truly dominant performance from by Nora Romina Nádas. The Hungarian athlete powered into an early lead in the swim and was the only woman to dip under 10 minutes for the 750m. She recorded a time of 9:59.
Mirtel-Madlen Siimar followed with Noémi Van Der Kaaij and Tiphanie Brun a few seconds down. A fast T1 saw Van Der Kaaij latch onto the rear wheel of Nádas; the rest of the field were not quite able to do the same.
Already stretched by the Hungarian’s speed in the water, the field had been put on the back foot and had little by way of response.
The duo of Nádas and Van Der Kaaij were therefore able to ride away from their rivals without any real counter-attack being mounted. Before long, the leaders were a minute clear. Over the course of the 20km, they extended their advantage to 90 seconds.
Amélie Gorka, Brun and Liis Kapten tried to reduce the damage from chase but could not make any real dent. As the leaders arrived in T2, there was no chance of catching them.
Nádas promptly dropped Van Der Kaaij on the run. She seemed in complete control every step of the way and cruised to her first international triathlon win.
Van Der Kaaij was the next athlete to finish 52 seconds later. After a sterling all-round performance, her silver medal was hard-earned and will go with her hardware from the European Junior Cups in Riga and Olsztyn.
Brun then crossed the line 2 minutes and 1 second behind Nádas to seal the bronze medal.
You can view the full results here.
