After racing took place in Oceania and Europe (with the Oceania Championships in Taupo and European Cup in Melilla), the Americas Cup in Salinas, Ecuador, concluded a long Sunday of triathlon.
A Sprint distance affair was on offer, attracting small but cosmopolitan start lists and the home team faced a fight to make it onto the podium.
Women’s race
The women’s race belonged to one athlete. Amber Schlebusch was in impeccable form in Salinas as she powered to a breakaway victory.
She got the ball rolling with a field-leading split of 9:45 in the water. Sidney Clement, the newly-crowned Americas Junior champion, was right with her and Josephine Seerig of Germany was able to stay within 3 seconds of the South African athlete. Otherwise, the next athletes were 10 seconds adrift. Adroit work in T1 saw Schlebusch and Seerig gain a further handful of seconds, while Clement lost time, and from there they did not look back.
The Schlebusch and Seerig cooperated well over the 20km bike to construct a commanding lead of over a minute. Schlebusch would eventually claim the fastest bike split in 29:18 on a day in which no one other than Seerig rode under 30:20.
In the chase pack, Clement, Naomi Ruff, the 2023 North American Junior medallist, and home star Elizabeth Bravo were prominent in the chase pack as they sought to stem the flow of seconds. However, outside of Bravo, the chasers lacked a bit of experience. Of the eight chasers, four were either still Junior athletes or in their first season out of the Junior category.
At the front, Schlebusch and Seerig arrived in T2 with no challenge in sight. From there, Schlebusch ran clear to a dominant victory to go with her 2023 wins in Sarasota and Hong Kong.
Seerig would eventually be passed by Bravo and Ruff on the run. Bravo went on to take silver, 1 minute 34 seconds behind Schlebusch, and Ruff claimed the bronze medal.
Men’s race
Despite the rapid pace set by Andrew Shellenberger in the water, the men’s field did not actually break up all too much in the swim. Shellenberger clocked 7:42 to had the American a slim lead over Ramón Armando Matute of Ecuador. Thereafter, though, the field mostly bunched together on the bike.
All bar seven men in the field made it into the lead group and there was no obvious point of separation for a lot of the 20km. The American team were quick to assert themselves with Ryan Luczak and Keller Norland joining Shellenberger at the front. Fresh off a bronze medal at the Americas Cup in Vina del Mar, Pavlos Antoniades of Canada also pushed up to the head of the group.
Norland then made a smart break on the bike to put a little distance between himself and the pack. He took Cristóbal Baeza Muñoz of Chile with him and, while they did not build a substantial lead, they carried a good 10 seconds over the field.
With little else to break up the field on two wheels, the race was settled on two feet.
Erik Yamir Ramos Croda of Mexico was sharp through T2 and put himself alongside Norland. Luczak and Antoniades likewise followed towards the front. Meanwhile, as much as they fought, the Ecuadorian trio of Matute, Gabriel Terán Carvajal and Juan Jose Andrade Figueroa could not quite bring the leaders to heel.
In the end, Antoniades’ form told as he powered clear. He clocked 15:01 for the 5km, the fastest of the field, and secured a first international win by 13 seconds.
Although Norland and Luczak matched one another’s splits on the run, it was Norland that took the silver. Luczak, though, could take heart from a maiden international medal in 3rd place.
View the full results here.
