Genis Grau just won the World Triathlon Cup in Huatulco, Mexico. The Spanish athlete needed 53:47 minutes to complete the Sprint Distance. It was an exciting sprint finish between Grau, Canada’s Tyler Mislawchuk and Mexico’s Miguel Hidalgo. The latter two men finished second and third respectively.
Hidalgo and Slovakia’s Richard Varga – who were alongside each other first out of the water – may have created a little gap during the swim, that buffer soon disappeared on the bike part. In a few kilometers, most of the field merged together, creating a big pack of 38 athletes. That didn’t change until T2, and that meant everything came down to the 5K run.
Japan’s Ren Sato was first out of the transition area, but the rest of the athletes were breathing down his neck. In a few hundred meters, approximately ten athletes found each other’s company in the lead. With 2500 meters down that still hadn’t changed, but in the second part of the run things slowly started to shift. As the pace was pushed by some strong runners, a few runners in the back of the lead pack started to drop off. Not for good, though, because moments later they were able to tag along again, which meant the group was back at eleven men.
In the final few hundred meters four of them started to bend over, visibility increasing the pace, and aiming for the victory: Mislawchuk, Hidalgo, Grau and David Nunez (MEX). Nunez was first to drop off and with the finish nearly in sight, Hidalgo had to let the other men go too. Grau turned out to be able to pull off the strongest sprint, as he left Mislawchuk behind, too. Grau claimed the victory, Mislawchuk took second, and Hidalgo finished with the final podium spot.
