Oceania Triathlon

After a format change to duathlon due to bad weather affecting the water quality, the intensity was cranked up on Friday morning for the start of the men’s Junior World Championship race in Montreal.

The leaders chopped and changed in what looked like being an unpredictable chase for the title, until Thomas Hansmaennel put the hammer down after just a few hundred metres of the final 5km to pull clear. With nobody able to respond, Hansmaennel carved out a huge gap behind him, and was able to soak up the moment down the final stretch of blue carpet, finishing 18 seconds ahead of Toby Powers (AUS) in second, Reese Vannerson (USA) with the bronze.

“I wasn’t able to race the European Championships so this feels like the perfect result,” said Hansmaennel. “I wasn’t disappointed at the switch to duathlon, and was just looking to save some legs at the end of the bike so I could go all out on that final run, and it worked.”

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Canada’s Mathis Beaulieu was putting the early pressure on race number one and the 2021 silver medallist Joao Nuno Batista (POR), who was right there with him and another Australian talent Peyton Craig.

Five seconds separated the top 20 heading into T1 and out onto the 4-lap, 20km bike, through which Niels Van Lanen (NED) was up front asking the questions of those behind coming through transition at the halfway point, just as he had in Quarteira last year.

Hansmaennel was pushing the pace along with compatriots Leo Fernandez and Pablo Isotton, but it was a big pack of 35 athletes, those at the back having to work hard at each 90-degree turn to close the gaps that kept forming to those driving things out front.

There was one more small break over the final lap from Fabian Schonke (GER) and Van Lanen but it came to no more than useful clear road heading in to transition.

Luke Anthony (USA) was into the lead over the opening 300m but Hansmaennel clearly had a plan, immediately going on the attack and extending a commanding lead over the chasers.

Vannerson and Powers were eventually able to drop Isotton, David Lang (LUX) and Peyton Craig not letting the elastic go but unable to reel in those ahead, before Powers found an extra gear to assure him the silver ahead of the American, Isotton and Lang in 4th and 5th respectively, but there was no doubt that the race belonged to the French World Champion Thomas Hansmaennel.

For the full results, click here.