Cork City Triathlon Junior Races

The Junior Men lead off the day in Cork with 21 taking to the start. With this being the 5th race at this level in 5 weeks for Europe's Juniors it was always going to struggle to attract a big field but it turned out to be an excellent race. 

Two main groups formed out of the swim with Mathys Bocquet and Archie Bremner in the front and Pearse Gallagher in the next riding about 20 seconds apart throughout. Ethan Doherty was in a 3rd group on the road. 

Bocquet was the best of the Irish in the swim coming 3rd out of the water. Bremner was 3 seconds back with Gallagher a further 15 seconds back. This is definitely a big improvement from last year for Gallagher who may be disappointed he didn't replicate his swim from Crooked Lake a few weeks back where all 4 of the Irish athletes exited the swim together with Russell White. European Cups, however small the field, are a much rougher proposition. 

With no changes made on the flat, fast bike course the run went much as expected at the front with Mexican Osvaldo Darell Zuniga Fierro moved clear with a 15.20 5k to win by 11 seconds from Mitchell Blackbourn.

Bocquet held off Gallagher, who closed 25 seconds on the run, to finish best of the Irish in 6th place. Along with Bremner, both are currently entered in the European Sprint and Relay Championships in 4 weeks in Turkey.  Bocquet and Doherty along with Senen McDonnell reached the B final there last year in the supersprint format. Cork appears to have been a quite similar standard overall to Dublin last year and that form has held up in Junior events across Europe this year so we can look forward to the Irish team going close and possibly getting 1 or 2 into the final this time around.

Here is some sample athlete performance data for athetes competing in Cork

Theo Marti 800m swim 8.33  (2022)‍

Poli Stoffel 400m swim 5.06  (2022)  

Mitchell Blackbourn World athletics rankings 5km 15.06  (2023)

Matthew Van Coller World athletics rankings  1500m 3.57  (2023)

The Junior women's race only had 8 starters but even so, and bearing in mind the obviously short swim course on the day, it was clear that the Irish duo of Aimee Carr and Nessa Mangan have both moved forward since last year's race in Dublin.

The Australian pair of Alexandra Field and Isla Watson have been right at the front of all their races in Europe this year and were likely looking to put as much time as possible into the Mexican athletes, particularly Maria Lopez Feraudo, so to be at a minute off Watson and 90s off Field is a step in the right direction for Carr and Mangan. They were over 2 minutes off in Dublin 2023.

Mangan posted a 5.15 in the British Triathlon Performance Assessments in April over 400m and if she can take that down to 4.50-4.55 over the next 2 years of her Junior career that should put her into bunches on the bike in European Cup races. Carr, who is in her last junior year, hit 11.15 over 800m in the same assessment trials last year and improved on that to a 10.59 last october. They are also both entered for the sprint and relays in Turkey so more opportunity, which doesn't really happen domestically, to swim under pressure to make a bike pack and with the physicality required to hold your place. 

To put some perspective on swim times from previous athletes Orla Walsh was 4th in the swim, 11th overall, in Holten in 2018 and had competition times of 4.52 for 400SC and 10.02 for 800LC from 2 years previous. Maeve Gallagher was 11th in the Junior European Championships in 2019 when swimming 4.48SC for 400. While pool times are not a guarantee they are performance indicators and we can look forward to seeing how Mangan and Carr progress.

The race as with the junior men went according to script with the Australians leading out  and the fast running Mexican, Lopez Feraudo, winning with easily the fastest run split of the day.

Well done to all with positives for the future, and great to see more high end racing in Ireland.

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