Swim
Alessio Crociani surged ahead of the field on the second lap of the swim in Pontevedra. In doing so, he bought a 4 second lead that he carried into T1.
Jamie Riddle was the next man out, clocking 18:13 to Crociani’s 18:09. Mitsuho Mochizuki followed in 18:14 and Jonas Osterholt managed a time of 18:16. Gergő Dobi matched Osterholt’s time while a trio consisting of Gergely Kiss, Henry Graf and Esteban Basanta Fouz managed 18:17.
Josiah Ney recorded a time of 18:18 and race winner Simon Henseleit rounded out the top-10 in 18:19.
The women’s race winner at the World U23 Championships, Selina Klamt, was also the fastest swimmer in the field. Klamt produced a time of 18:36 in the 1500 to take the lead ahead of Tilly Anema, Jessica Fullagar and Sophia Howell.
The trio were all on the German athlete’s feet as they swam 18:37. Laura Holánszky was then the final athlete to make the mini group at the front in 18:38.
A small gap formed before Tara Sosinski led the next pack of athletes. The Australian athlete recorded a time of 18:44. Hannah Knighton split 18:45 in the swim while Angelica Prestia and Brea Roderick split 18:47.
Tjasa Vrtacic then completed the top-10 in 18:48.
Bike
The fastest men’s splits had a strong Antipodean flavour as Lachlan Haycock and Bradley Course led the way in 54:05. Daniel Dixon, Oscar Dart and John Reed then followed in 54:06 and Sebastian Wernersen clocked 54:08.
Saxon Morgan made it four athletes from Australia and New Zealand in the top-7 splits with his time of 54:09. The silver medallist Baptiste Passemard was the next man in 54:12.
Andreas Carlsson and Henry Graf rounded out the top-10 in 54:13 and 54:15, respectively.
Cathia Schär mounted a big comeback after the swim and made it to the front pack thanks to a fiedl-leading bike split of 1:01:15.
Natalia Castro Santos was the next quickest woman in 1:01:24 while Cecilia Sayuri Ramirez Alavez managed 1:01:25. In contrast to the men’s field, the leading women’s bike splits were a little more spread out. Indeed, there was a bigger gap between the third and fourth fastest women’s splits than there was across the entire men’s top-10.
Maria Casals Mojica clocked the fourth fastest split in 1:01:38, Karolina Helga Horváth was next in 1:01:43 and Erin McConnell hit 1:01:48. To complete the top-10 splits, Tanja Neubert, Finja Schierl, Maïra Carreau and Hannah Newman all rode 1:01:50.
Run
David Cantero del Campo confirmed the threat he posed to the field as he zoomed to the fastest run split of the day. The Valencia World Cup winner stopped the clock at 30:30; however, having missed the front pack, he was not in a position to push for the medals.
Simon Henseleit had the next quickest split in 31:05 as he ran to victory. In a similar fashion to Cantero, Yanis Seguin then had the next best split in 31:07 but was not in a position to fight for the medals.
Instead, Seguin’s compatriot Passemard was able to run onto the podium with a split of 31:18. The bronze medallist Mitch Kolkman followed in 31:25 while the unfortunately disqualified Basanta came home in 31:36.
Panagiotis Bitados and Vitalii Vorontsov both managed splits of 31:40 while Daniel Dixon and Crociani rounded out the top-10 in 31:44 and 31:54, respectively.
The fastest run of the women’s race was actually the fastest split of any woman in Pontevedra.
Anahi Alvarez Corral ripped a ridiculous 33:18 split for the 10km to scythe through the field. Such was her superiority on the run, no one in the race came with 90 seconds of her.
Maria Tomé, the silver medallist, was the next quickest runner in 34:57. Meanwhile, Klamt hit a time of 34:59 and was the only other woman under 35 minutes.
In turn, Angelica Prestia was the only other woman under 36 minutes. She ran to the bronze medal with a 35:27 split. Schär’s 36:02 subsequently made her the fourth and final woman to run within 3 minutes of Alvarez. That alone might be the craziest statistic of the entire weekend.
Tilly Anema followed in 36:20 while Neubert earned 5th place with her 36:25 split. Vrtacic and Horváth clocked 36:34 and 36:35 and Barbara De Koning was the final woman inside the top-10 in 36:37.
The story of the run, however, was unquestionably Alvarez.
