Cork Junior European Cup. International opportunities at home for Irish Juniors for second consecutive year.

In the junior women's field Maria Lopez Faraudo has already won an Americas Cup Elite race, Isla Watson and Alexandra Field led out a 1, 2 in the swim in Holten and Emma Rysavkova, with 13 European Cup races already completed, was 15th in the Junior World Championships last year. 

It will be a tough ask for Nessa Mangan and Aimee Carr to go head to head with this group but it is another great opportunity to learn and build on their experience from Dublin last year. If they have closed on the swim and can be stronger on the bike that will show they are moving forward. Despite the successes Lopez Farauda has had some relatively weak swims and anyone ahead of her in the swim could get a fast bike to follow on the flat bike course.

In a field similar in size to Dublin last year 5 Irish athletes are on the startlist in the junior men's race, Pearse Gallagher, Ethan Doherty, Mathys Bocquet, Sean McMahon and Archie Bremner. 

Bocquet is the most experienced in international races followed by Doherty but they were both headed by McMahon in Quarteirra in their only European Cup event of 2024 so far. Gallagher looks to have improved his swim since last year in Dublin and along with Bremner is competing in only the 2nd European Cup race of their careers. All 5 came out of the water within 3 seconds of each other in the recent Sprint Nationals at Crooked Lake with Gallagher the fastest on the run. 

Leading the field at number 1 is Osvaldo Darell Zuniga Fierro who comes with a stack of top performances in his resume. 5th place in the Junior World Championships along with 2nd in the Americas Champs and a Top 10 in an Elite Americas Cup just a few highlights. Tiago Munoz was 4th in the Americas Junior Champs while Mitchell Blackbourn was recently 4th in Holten. Again we will be looking to see how the Irish Athletes have progressed at this level and if one of the faster runners can be in the mix for the medals. 

Well worth spectators getting there early to see what Junior European racing looks like particularly the youth athletes to see what is coming up for them in the future and what the speed looks like. Be sure to check out the transitions and see how tiny margins at T1 impact an athletes time gap after the 1st lap of the bike.

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