France sprint to gold again in Men’s Junior Triathlon World Championship

Following shortly after a brilliant women’s race just a couple of hours before, the Men’s Junior Triathlon World Championship was the final race on Friday evening at the World Triathlon Championship Finals in Torremolinos, Spain.

Ambre Grasset and Fanni Szalai had set a high bar in terms of excitement for the women, but another blue carpet sprint finish ensured that the men delivered too.

Once again, it was France’s day, and upgrading his 2023 silver medal to gold, Nils Serre Gehri just getting the better of the USA’s Reese Vannerson.

Race Recap

European Junior Champion in both 2023 and 2024, Portugal’s João Nuno Batista was the defending champion from Hamburg last year, and his attempt at a ‘double-double’ got off to a fine start – alongside Marton Kropko (HUN), Gregor Rasva (EST) and Roy Baron (ISR), he led the field into T1 after the opening 750m sea swim. Batista and Kropko had used a hard swim to create a bike breakaway earlier this year at the European Championship in Balikesir, Turkey, and perhaps had their sights set on breaking up the field from the start again.

A group of nine did form on the first lap at which point their advantage was 21 seconds. That held pretty much static through laps two and three, but into the final 5km of the bike leg and it was all change, as the chasing group merged with the leaders, leaving 20 athletes heading into T2 in very close order.

Spain’s Hector Tolsa Garcia powered into the opening section of the run, but come the 2.5km point – halfway – we were back to a leading group of seven, comprising Nuno Batista, Tolsa Garcia, Kropko, Nils Serre Gehri (FRA), Achille Besson (FRA), David Lang (LUX) and Reese Vannerson (USA), with Great Britain’s Oliver Conway just struggling to stay with them.

Into the final kilometre and the French duo were pushing the pace on, before the USA’s Vannerson – bronze two years ago – moved the front and tried to up the speed another notch. Nils Serre Gehri would not be dropped however, and with the memory of a silver last year, he made an explosive move just before the final turn onto the blue carpet to gain pole position. Vannerson dug deep, but matching the feat of their Junior women, it would be France in gold and bronze, with Achille Besson completing the podium.