The first Olympic distance race on the international circuit took place yesterday in La Guaira, Venezuala. Last year’s men’s winner, Rodrigo Gonzalez, was back to hunt for another gold medal, although several rivals were ready for him.
In hot and humid conditions, the racing was certainly not the gentlest start to the season.
Women’s race
Roksana Slupek arrived in Venezuela on the back of a two race winning streak, having claimed victories at two African Cups at the end of 2023. The Christmas break clearly did her form no harm as she powered to an imperious win.
Ivana Kuriackova led the two-lap 1500m swim in a time of 21:16. Slupek exited the water only 1 second behind as practically the entire field remained in a single tight bunch.
Neither T1 nor the early stages of the bike did much to split up the field. With the likes of Emy Legault, Romina Biagioli and Sinem Francisca Tous Servera poised to strike, energy conservation proved an important tent of the bike.
While Yoshiko Eda clocked the fastest bike split in 1:03:33, none of the pack around her were more than 7 seconds slower.
The race thus came down to the run and that is when Slupek sparked into life. With a superb time of 35:32 over the 10km, she cruised to the win by just over a minute. Having made it three international gold medals in a row, she will be racing again at the Americas Cup in La Habana next weekend in search of win number four.
Legault had the next best run of the field and came home to take the silver medal in a good start to her season. Meanwhile, Kuriackova held off a charging Tous to secure the bronze medal.
Men’s race
The men’s race started slightly differently to the women’s as home prospect Yhousman David Perdomo Peña took charge of the swim. The Venezuelan athlete led the way in a time of 18:50 with Michal Oliwa next out of the water.
As Ramon Armando Matute and Benedikt Bettin followed the two leaders, a small break seemed to form between the field. While a group did escape off the front, it was actually a different selection of athletes.
Juan Jose Andrade Figueroa, Carlos Javier Quinchara Forero and Luis Miguel Velasquez Ramos took the chance at a breakaway. With Felix Duchampt, Rodriguez and Vitali Vorontsov working in the chase pack, the front three were limited in how much time they could earn. Nevertheless, the stuck to their task and arrived in T2 with a handy advantage of around half a minute.
While Velasquez paid for his efforts on the run, the duo of Andrade and Quinchara forced the tempo to maintain their lead.
Duchampt, Oliwa and Rodriguez headed the chase but made minimal in-roads at first. Sensing the win was slipping away, Duchampt broke clear of his fellow chasers. Gradually, he wound in Quinchara, leaving only Andrade ahead.
A big final push from the Romanian athlete took him past his Ecuadorian rival and Duchampt took the gold by 8 seconds. After a tough day out, Andrade made it back to claim a well-earned silver medal. Quinchara likewise held on to win the bronze.
You can view the full results here.
