Spaniard David Cantero del Campo has just won the U23 OD World Championship in magnificent fashion; after a large group started running at the same time, he immediately distanced himself from everyone in the first meters and from that moment on he proved totally inimitable.
The race was completely decided during the run. Initially, Dylan McCullough, Marcus Dey, Zalán Hobor and Pavel Sorokin were the four of them who took off on the bike, but pretty soon this small leading group was caught up by a chasing group that also included Dutchman Mitch Kolkman, who finished third last year; thus, a leading group of eleven men in total was formed.
However, a second chasing group eventually also joined in – this happened after an hour on the clock and T2 was getting closer – creating a leading group of 24. These men headed for T2 together and began the final ten kilometers of running together.
From there on, the tension – at least about who would win the race – was almost immediately gone; del Campo immediately put a scorching pace on it and gave no one a chance to run with him. For a moment it was questionable whether he himself could maintain his fast pace, but Del Campo showed no sign of fatigue and ran seemingly tirelessly to the finish line and thus the U23 world title. Behind him it was the Greek Panagiotis Bitados, perhaps the biggest surprise within the field this year with several victories, including the European Ironman 70.3, who also ran very strongly; he may not have been able to stay with Del Campo, but at the same time he gave no one a chance to keep him from the silver. Behind them again, it was Gergely Kiss, Dylan McCullough, Jules Rethoret, Andree Buc, John Reed and Henry Graf racing for bronze at just under a minute. It was Kiss taking the honors.
Del Campo won the U23 World Championship in a time of 1:45:12. Bitados finished second at 34 seconds and Kiss third at 59 seconds.
