Some choose to party their way into the New Year. Some choose to set off fireworks. Some choose to test their running fitness with a final race of the year.
To celebrate the end of the year, multiple elite triathletes took on the third option as they competed in a variety of running races on the final day of 2023.
In Auch, a contingent of French triathletes took on the 8.4km course at the Corrida d’Auch. Damian Andrada came out on top in a time of 25:25, beating out Thomas Teofili by 5 seconds. Nathan Lessmann came 4th in 27:14.
At the same event, the runner-up at the 2023 European Championships, Jeanne Lehair, was the second woman home in 30:11. The fastest woman completed the course in 28:57.
Over in Germany, Marlene Gomez-Göggel won the women’s race at the Georg Hieble Silvesterlauf in Kempten. A triple World Cup medallist in 2023, Gomez-Göggel cruised to victory in her category by over a minute as she clocked 35:29 over a hilly 10km.
In addition, the World U23 champion, Simon Henseleit, took on the Silversterlauf in Amberg. He completed the 7.5km course in 22:28 to win by over half a minute.
In addition to the World U23 title, Henseleit won a maiden World Cup medal in Rome. One of the athletes he beat out that day (the 5th place finisher in Rome) also raced before the end of 2023 in Denmark.
As he did in 2022, Emil Holm tackled the Sparta’s New Year’s Race / Nytårsløb.
Holm was the top finisher in the 5km race, completing the course in 15:07. It was a little slower than his time of 14:24 last year but Holm nonetheless did enough to take the win.
Elsewhere, Roberto Sanchez Mantecon, a WTCS medallist in Bermuda in 2022, took on the San Silvestre Vallecana, an annual 10km road race in Madrid. Berihu Aregawi of Ethiopia won the race in a time of 27:15 while Sanchez clocked 29:09 in a positive performance for the time of the year.
His Spanish teammate, David Cantero del Campo, went even quicker at the same race. Cantero, the winner of this year’s Valencia World Cup, powered to a time of 28:57.
While it is too soon to take any meaningful conclusions ahead of the 2024 season, it would be no surprise to see some of the afore mentioned athletes drop some big performances in the coming campaign.
