Speed was the name of the game at the European Youth Championships.
Over the Super Sprint finals, the racing took scarcely over 20 minutes in total, leaving virtually no opportunities to put a foot wrong, and the loss of even a few seconds proved fatal to the hopes of several athletes. To land on the podium, a near-perfect race was required.
The heats had slimmed the men’s and women’s fields to thirty athletes apiece the night prior. While some took the chance to win their heat and prove their strength, others kept some energy in reserve. When the gun went off in the final, though, there was no holding back.
Women’s race
One athlete that could be counted to not hold back from the start was Fanni Szalai. The Hungarian blitzed the swim and earned a small gap over the field into T1.
The field exited in quick succession afterwards, with Lisa Lecompte and Cassilda Carvalho leading the chase from 6 seconds down.
In the first heat, Szalai had pushed the pace yet only finished 2nd behind Ambre Grasset of France. Notably, both had run away from the defending champion, Léa Houart.
Szalai did not relent on the bike in the final but a group of five women were able to ride up to her wheel. The front pack soon grew again as Grasset made her way up to the leaders. Shortly after, the winners of the other two heats, Anouk Danna and Linda Krombach, also made it to the front.
With the continued growth of the group, the pace slowed. However, a couple of riders became a little too relaxed and a crash brought four women down. Among those to fall were Lauren Mitchell, the runner up at the 2022 event, and her compatriot Patience Lamb. Luna Sraka and Anouk Rigaud, both European Junior Cup medallists this season, were also knocked down in the crash.
It was a cruel way to end their races and over such a short distance there was no prospect of a comeback.
At the front, Helena Coy shared control of the pack with Szalai as the group tried to stay out of trouble for the remaining kilometres. An unexpected spike in speed then stretched the pack into T2 as Szalai, Houart and Grasset led the way.
In the opening hundred metres of the run, Grasset bolted into the lead. Szalai, though, quickly reeled in the French woman. Yet Grasset would not let her go. Her compatriot, Ilona Hadhoum, had won the World Junior title only a week earlier and now she had her chance to add another gold to France’s trophy cabinet.
Grasset therefore redoubled her effort and moved to the front.
As hard as Grasset pushed, though, Szalai looked extremely comfortable. Like a jack-in-the-box being wound up, it seemed a matter of time until she popped.
Longer and longer the race wound as the minutes passed. Then, with the arrival of the blue carpet, Szalai finally went off.
She blasted away from her rival to claim the gold, her third internationally of the year. Grasset crossed soon after to earn the silver medal while Houart was next over the line in 3rd place.
Men’s race
The men tore into the 300m swim at breakneck speed. After the opening burst, Jakub Mittner of Czech Republic and Tommaso Sana of Italy began to consolidate a lead at the front of the race and stretched the field behind. Going stroke for stroke, the pair barely gave one another an inch of breathing room.
Mittner’s stroke looked a little more leg-dominant of the two and his arms started to swing slightly raggedly towards the end of the swim as the pace told. His speed, though, did not drop. The two leaders jumped out with the field struggling behind but not fractured.
Milan Lariviere of France was close behind and managed to eat up a little of the gap on the short run to transition. The three forged a small gap on the bike but it was soon erased as the field moved up around them. With every couple of turns, the front pack grew as the bulk of the thirty athletes made it to the lead group.
Early in the 6.6km, the three winners from the heats, Roy Baron of Israel and the Spanish pair of Hector Tolsa García and Lucas García Picón, made their presence known among the leaders.
For the most part, though, the pack rode together, with Lariviere sitting confidently at the front.
Over such a short race, positioning into T2 proved crucial. Whereas Tolsa was among the first off his bike, Carol Popa, one of the leading runners in the field, was the nineteenth man into transition and ceded 7 seconds to the Spaniard. That small gap would ultimately prove insurmountable.
Tolsa moved out into the lead and for a brief moment it looked as if he would run to the win unopposed.
Suddenly, a swarm of French athletes surrounded him. Lariviere, Achille Besson and Tristan Douche swept beside him and dove ahead. Baron likewise moved up and Tolsa had to raise his pace to maintain contact with the group.
Over the 1.8km, the pace ebbed and flowed as different athletes took turns to inject a new volley of speed. As the French trio began to cement their control of the group, Tolsa and Baron seemed on the back foot.
Lariviere took over the pace-setting duties with Besson and Douche on his feet, but then Tolsa moved back up to remind his rivals of his threat. Jens Smolders of Belgium had also surged into a position to strike for the win and as the leaders turned towards the finish any of six athletes seemed possible winners.
Two of the French athletes, Douche and Lariviere, attacked as soon as the blue carpet came into view and quickly pulled out a small gap. Although they tried to fight back, none of the others could retaliate.
With a final acceleration, Douche managed to nudge ahead of his compatriot and claimed the gold. Lariviere secured the silver medal while Smolders held off Tolsa for the bronze medal.
You can view the full results here.
