Batista runs away with ITU Junior World Crown

Surviving the test of Lausanne’s steep hills and sharp corners on the bike and the run, Ricardo Batista of Portugal left behind Lorcan Redmond of Australia with 300 meters to go to earn the gold on the sprint distance Junior World Championship course in the Olympic City.

Batista finished in 55:05 on the 750-meter swim in Lake Geneva, 4-lap 20-kilometer bike course, and 5-kilometer run with a 7 seconds margin of victory over silver medalist Redmond and 11 seconds over bronze medalist Sergio Baxter Cabrera of Spain.

“This is really unbelievable,” Batista told ITU media. “I have trained very hard and very long for this, since my first year as a Junior. I was worried on the bike course, because we had too many athletes in our group so I was just trying to stay safe and save some legs. Out of T2 I felt really strong, and was able to drop many athletes.”

“It was a very tough ride,” Redmond told ITU media. “We had a lot of people in our group and we were all over the road, we were lucky to get through without any accidents. The run was crazy, it was rough, especially after such a hard bike course, but I have been training here and I knew what I was up to, so I just went for it. Ricardo (Batista) had the legs no one else had today, so congratulations for him.”

“This is truly amazing,” said Baxter, who has been training in Leeds at the Brownlee center. “I didn’t expect to podium here but here I am with the bronze medal. I had a couple of injuries early this year, but I feel really good now.”

Race recap

Alessio Crociani of Italy led the swim with an 8:59 split that gave him a split second margin on Marcus Dey of Great Britain and 2 seconds on Jamie Riddle of South Africa. He had 6 seconds on eventual winner Batista in 10th place and 13 seconds on Redmond Lorcan of Australia in a natatory traffic jam in 43rd place.

Ten triathletes took the lead on the first of four laps on the ride, but Andreas Carlsson of Sweden led a charge by a chase pack and soon the ride settled into a 32-man procession. By halfway the lead pack swelled to 40.

Emerging from the two wheel traffic jam, Joshua Ferris of Australia, Crociani and Boris Pierre of France opened the run with a surge, but on the second trip up and down Lausanne’s hills, Batista passed into the lead, followed closely by Redmond. Making up time following a 39-second deficit after the swim, Baxter Cabrera surged hard to shadow the two leaders at the front, but exhausted with the effort, faded away into 3rd.

On the wings of a race-best 15:37 run split, Batista ran off to glory with 300 meters to go, while Redmond (15:46 run) and Baxter Cabrera (15:43 run) filled out the podium.

ITU Junior World Championship
Lausanne, Switzerland
August 30, 2019
S 750m / B 20k / R 5k

Results

Junior Men

1. Ricardo Batista (POR) 55:05 S 9:09 T1 00:39 B 29:14 T2 00:29 R 15:37
2. Lorcan Redmond (AUS) 55:12 S 9:40 T1 00:36 B 28:46 T2 00:25 R 15:46
3. Sergio Baxter Cabrera (ESP) 55:16 S 9:44 T1 00:38 B 28:41 T2 00:31 R 15:43
4. Boris Pierre (FRA) 55:18 S 9:44 T1 00:37 B 28:43 T2 00:25 R 15:51
5. Paul Georgenthum (FRA) 55:23 S 9:36 T1 00:35 B 28:51 T2 00:25 R 15:58
6. Levente Karai (HUN) 55:29 S 9:02 T1 00:38 B 29:23 T2 00:26 R 16:02
7. Brock Hoel (CAN) 55:36 S 9:21 T1 00:36 B 29:04 T2 00:24 R 16:11
8. Alessio Crociani (ITA) 55:38 S 8:59 T1 00:35 B 29:30 T2 00:24 R 16:11
9. Eric Diener (GER) 55:41 S 9:27 T1 00:39 B 28:59 T2 00:25 R 16:13
10. Simon Henseleit (GER) 55:42 S 9:22 T1 29:03 T2 00:22 R 16:19
27. Andrew Shellenberger (USA) 56:28 S 9:07 T1 00:37 B 29:22 T2 00:27 R 16:57
31. Luis Ortiz (USA) 56:49 S 9:32 T1 00:38 B 28:53 T2 00:26 R 17:21