Summer is rarely the season for triathlon in Africa. Between the African Cup in Yasmine Hammamet at the end of May and the African Cup in Monastir in September, only one race on the continent has been pencilled into the schedule.
That event came at the weekend with the African Premium Cup in Larache, Morocco. Although no African athletes started in the women’s race, the men’s event saw Badr Siwane of Morocco wear number 1.
Against a cosmopolitan field, with all five continental associations represented, Siwane had a challenge on his hands to win a home gold medal.
Men’s race
None of the men were quite able to separate themselves from the field in the swim. Gültigin Er of Turkey led the way in a time of 9:09 but a large pack of men exited on his heels. Gerónimo Dherete of Argentina lost time in T1 after good work in the water but otherwise most of the leading swimmers came together early on in the bike.
A group of thirteen men formed at the head of the race.
Angel Sanchez Carreras and Nan Oliveras were among the group, as was Siwane. Much of the early pace came from Henry Räppo and Davide Ingrilli, though, as the Estonian and Italian pulled some big turns.
From further back, a major effort from Valdemar Solok, the recently-crowned Danish champion, saw him manage to ride up to the lead pack. His reward for his exertions was the fastest bike split of the day, although he seemed to pay for his efforts as the race wore on.
Other than Solok, the chase were unable to reel the leaders in and so the front pack arrived into T2 with a healthy advantage.
Off the bike, Oliveras and Sanchez bolted to the front of the pack. Juan Gonzalez Garcia got off to a speedy start to the run to put three Spanish athletes in control of the race.
Räppo and Ingrilli tried to react to the pace being set, as did Raf De Dobbelaere. Yet over the course of the 5km the field had no answer to the leading Spanish trio.
Eventually, Oliveras’ pace began to wear down his compatriots. Gonzalez cracked first and fell away. Far from slipping away completely, he managed to cling to his virtual third place with Räppo, Ingrilli and De Dobbelaere nipping at his heels. Sanchez managed to solider on for a little longer, but he soon buckled under Oliveras’ pressure.
On the back of the fastest run split of the day (a 15:06 5km), Oliveras thus took the win by 9 seconds. Sanchez crossed the line in 2nd and then the wait began.
As hard as De Dobbelaere pushed, he could not quite catch Gonzalez. As such, the Spaniard held on to make it a Spanish sweep of the medals.
Women’s race
Unlike the men’s swim, two women managed to escape off the front.
Erin McConnell and Eva Goodisson pressed the pace early on to carve out a solid lead. Tara Sosinksi, the winner of the Asia Cup in Lianyungang, was the next closest challenger but swam alone, 20 seconds behind McConnell.
A pack of five followed Sosinski. Asia Mercatelli, Juri Ide and Brea Roderick were all part of the pack and could use the Australian as a target to follow through transition.
Sosinksi powered after McConnell and Goodisson and soon managed to make the jump to the front. However, Mercatelli and Ide did not quite get going on the bike and fell away. After losing further time to the leaders in T1, Roderick had to push the pace to recover the time lost. She passed Ide and Mercatelli and latched onto the wheel of Maria Alzaga Criado.
After a hard early effort, the duo of Alzaga and Roderick were able to ride up to the lead three of McConnell, Goodisson and Sosinksi.
Over the course of the 20km, the front five stretched their lead to well over a minute. Although it continued to grow, Goodisson was not content to rest on her laurels. She moved to the front of the pack and pumped her legs into overdrive. Roderick and McConnell tried to hang on to her.
Slowly but surely, though, the elastic binding Goodisson to the front group weakened until it finally snapped and she pulled away. By the end of the bike, Goodisson had a gap of over 20 seconds. However the chasers were already closing.
Alzaga fell away early in the run, leaving three women to pursue Goodisson. Roderick struck out ahead and was the first to pass her fellow New Zealander. Having watched Goodisson ride away, Roderick switched the roles and Goodisson could only watch as Roderick moved away.
Only a fortnight ago, Roderick made her WTCS debut. In another first, she continued to build throughout the 5km and pulled away from her rivals to claim a maiden international win. A second WTCS start awaits in Hamburg and the young New Zealander could be in line to break into the top-30 at that level for the first time.
Over the second half of the run, Goodisson slipped into the clutches of McConnell and Sosinski but could not quite hang on to either of them.
Late on, McConnell broke away from Sosinski to secure the silver medal. The Australian then took bronze to make it two medals from as many races.
View the full results here.
