In slightly more overcast conditions than are typical for the Tiszaujvaros festival of triathlon, Addison Houslip (AUS) and Jack Woodberry (AUS) shone brightest with a pair of sparkling performances to come away with the golds. Both did it the hard way over a super-sprint distance that consisted of a 500m swim, a 12.5km bike and a 3.6km run. With this year’s World Junior Championships set to take place on home turf in Wollongong, both have laid down a serious marker.
Junior women
The home team had run riot aquatically in the semi-finals a day prior and it was little surprise to see Jázmin Kropkó (HUN) lead Petra Bán (HUN and Laura Szóbácsi (HUN) into T1. A small gap followed before two more Hungarian athletes followed. Houslip was actually the first non-home athlete to make it to T1.
The first three pushed their lead out to 16 seconds across the opening stages of the five-lap bike course. The gap, though, slowly shrunk and the chase pack caught their target by the end of the third lap. One likely outcome at this point looked to be a running battle between Kropkó and Oceania Junior champion Aspen Anderson (AUS). Yet it was Dóra Pusztai (HUN) who threatened to upend everything by taking the initial lead on the run.
Houslip then boomed away, establishing a seemingly unassailable advantage. But with a lap to go, the Australian started to show signs of struggle. Worse for her, Szóbácsi was closing fast.
An acceleration on a slight downhill beside the lake bought Houslip a little more breathing room and she dug deep to win. Coming into this race, she had won a silver medal at the Holten Europe Junior Cup. As such, when she boards her plane back to Australia tonight after a five week block in Europe, she will have plenty to take home. Szóbácsi held on to take the silver medal while Kropkó secured the bronze.
Junior men
Jakub Mittner (CZE) took the early lead in the water, building upon his speedy swim showing at the recent Europe Junior Cup in Holten. That day he ended up with the bronze medal and he was evidently hungry for more in Tiszy. Sure enough, Mittner was the first man to make his way to T1, with Lehel Hóbor (HUN) for close company.
The defending champion from last year, Zalán Trungel-Nagy (HUN), was also within striking distance of the front, some 8 seconds back in 6th place. Moments later, Trungel-Nagy took control of the race as a lead group of seventeen bunched together around the first dead-turn on the bike. Chilean pair Sebastian Zurob and Daniel Ubilla Sababa were also in the lead group, however. The Americas Junior Championships medallists were among the swiftest runners in the field in the semi-finals and ideally placed to exploit the split in the field.
Zurob and Trungel-Nagy, race winners in yesterday’s semi-finals, were camped at the head of the lead pack. The chase pack of eleven, though, were slowly clawing back time. With a lap to go, Finnley Oliver (NZL) took off from the front, but the Oceania Junior Championship medallist’s escape was short-lived.
Once the packs merged, twenty-eight junior men scrambled into T2, elbows flying as they tried to squeeze through the mob to their berths. Trungel-Nagy led onto the run but had 2024 Oceania Junior champion Jack Woodberry (AUS) bearing down on him. Woodberry had been in the chase group and put in a heavy shift to make it back to the front. In addition, he had overcome a crash in the semi-finals. Nevertheless, he snatched the lead amid attention from Americas Junior champion Ubilla. With the pace fierce, Zurob was burned off.
Entering the last lap, there were six at the front, with Mittner still refusing to cede an inch. Then Woodberry attacked at almost the exact same point as Houslip. Mittner was suddenly gone; Ubilla was on the ropes. Woodberry went again, then again. Only Trungel-Nagy and Zsombor Holba (HUN) could hold on. Another attack by Woodberry forced the door to finally creak open. But Trungel-Nagy was back once more. It took a final desperate drive by Woodberry but it was enough as he won by 2 seconds. Trungel-Nagy crossed to claim the silver with Holba on his hip to claim the bronze.