Is this fifteen-year-old the next superstar of triathlon?
Fanni Szalai was on another level altogether on her way to the win at the European Junior Cup in Tiszaujvaros. In doing so, she made it two wins from her two European outings.
Back in May, she also triumphed at the European Junior Cup in Caorle. That day, she took down names like Ilona Hadhoum, Manon Laporte and Margareta Vrablova, each of whom will be among the favourites at the upcoming World Junior Championships.
In Tiszaujvaros, Szalai took on the same format as Caorle: semi-finals and a final over the Super Sprint distance. She was so utterly dominant on her way to the win that it was almost funny.
Her wins alone mean that, when it comes to Szalai, we are not talking about any ordinary fifteen-year-old. Despite her age, she clearly has physical advantages that enable to her to compete with athletes that have walked on the planet for almost 25% longer than her. From afar in the run, she looks like an athlete ten years older. For all of her physical maturity and ability to compete with older athletes, she also races with the energy of someone enjoying themselves.
More than plenty of other athletes across all ages, she looks like she has fun in races.
When you are so strong so young, races are likely to be fun.
In the swim, Szalai shared the fastest split with her teammate Nora Romina Nádas. Thereafter, she rode as part of the five woman breakaway that took control of the race. It was on the run, though, that she did the most damage.
From a technical standpoint, she looks like a remarkable runner. Short of being incredibly fussy, there are not a lot of things that one could point out as areas to improve. Her superior form was most apparent as she passed Nádas to take the lead. Nádas is a very strong runner for a Junior but the two athletes looked like they were in different races.
In contrast to her older teammate, Szalai looked as if she was hurtling down the finishing stretch of a 400m. This was barely 500m into the run.
Szalai’s turnover was much higher than all of her rivals yet at the same time more economical. There was very little by way of wasted energy. Nor was her superiority confied to the women’s race.
Only eleven of the thirty men in the Junior final managed to beat her split of 11:51 over the 3.6km run. Moreover only the men’s medallists were more than 30 seconds quicker than Szalai on the run.
It therefore appears safe to say that Szalai’s weapon is her run.
To break this down further, we will turn to her track times. As a disclaimer, these are from 2022 when she was only fourteen and so she could well be faster.
Last year, Szalai clocked a time of 4:33.69 over the 1500m (outdoors). To go with that, she ran the 3000m indoors in a time of 9:31.86.
For context, Anahi Alvarez Corral ran 4:20.68 in the 1500m (also outdoors) at twenty years old. Since then, Alvarez has gone on to become one of the best runners in the world of triathlon, from dropping devastating splits in Abu Dhabi last November to her recent win at Huatulco World Cup.
As another point of comparison, this January, shortly before turning nineteen, Tilda Månsson ran a Swedish Junior record of 9:08.85 in the indoor 3000m. Like Alvarez, Månsson is a World Cup winner and among the best pure runners in the sport.
To move to a different angle, let’s use World Athletics scores as a point of comparison. These scores are used by World Athletics to assign weight to performances in different events.
Szalai’s indoor 3000m result was worth 1021 points. When it comes to the World Athletics score, Hayden Wilde’s 3000m PB (run outdoors) has a score of 1080 (his best score is 1104 points from the 5000m).
Wilde ran those best times in 2021 before he went on to win an Olympic bronze medal in triathlon. Szalai ran hers at fourteen.
Only so much can be read into the comparison. Nevertheless, it should highlight the promise of Szalai’s running. The level she could possibly hit as a final-year Junior, then, let alone a Senior athlete, could be extraordinary.
Such is her running ability, she could well take a stab at the World Junior Athletics Championships in the next few years. On that front, as those championships are for U20 athletes, Szalai should be eligible until 2028.
In the short term, Szalai will next be racing at the European Youth Championships in Banyoles later this month. Although she will be up against athletes like Lea Houart of France, who won a silver medal at the European Junior Cup in Quarteira earlier this year, it will be hard to bet against Szalai.
From there, the young Hungarian will likely continue her gradual march to the top of the sport.
Assuming nothing goes wrong on the injury front and she makes even only moderate improvements, Szalai could be a remarkable prospect in five years. The craziest thing is that, by then, she will only just have left the Junior ranks behind. A lot can happen but by the time she becomes a Senior athlete, Szalai could be the next star of triathlon.
