Oceania Triathlon

With World Cup, World Triathlon Series and World Championship races held nearly every weekend in July, attention shifted to continental cups this weekend in Europe and the Americas. Here we look back at how the races played out in Istanbul and Chile.

2013 Bahia Inglesa ITU Triathlon Pan American Cup
In the men’s race, making the lead group in the swim proved to be monumental to finishing on the podium. A group of six men managed to push more than 45 seconds out in front, gaining a lead that was insurmountable out of the water. The pack dropped Chile’s Tomas Olavarria to make it a five-man race for three medals on the bike. But it all came down to the run when Juraci Moreira (BRA) zoomed ahead to win in 1:49:27. Spain’s Pablo Dapena Gonzalez followed for second in 1:50:00 and Chile’s own took third Felipe Van De Wyngard in 1:50:56.

Carolina Furriela made it a sweep for Brazil when she won the women’s race by more than a minute in 2:10:45. Barbara Schoenfeld (GUA) challenged Furriela until the final discipline when she fell behind to take silver in 2:11:52. In front of a home crowd, Andrea Longueira (CHI) took bronze in 2:18:54.

2013 Istanbul ITU Triathlon European Cup
The women’s race saw a tight battle for gold with the top three women finishing within 25 seconds of each other. The majority of women swam and rode together until Alexandra Razarenova (RUS) ran under 35 minutes on the four-lap 10km run to win in 2:03:16. Yuliya Yelistratova (UKR) posted the second-fastest run split of the day for silver in 2:03:34, while Mateja Simic was third in 2:03:40.

France produced a clean sweep in the men’s race, garnering all the medals despite trailing significantly until the run. It looked to be Jonas Schomburg’s race to lose off the bike, but his break on the cycling course was too soon, as Aurélien Lebrun, Simon Viain and Yohann Vincent all stormed through the run to overtake Schomburg with splits under 31 minutes. Lebrun was the fasted man of the day in 1:50:03, while Viain earned silver in 1:50:35. Their teammate Vincent overtook Schomburg in the final metres for third in 1:50:47.