U23 World Championship recap: Grenier-Talavera finishes top 10

Canada’s Xavier Grenier-Talavera ran his way to a top 10 finish in the men’s U23 race in Cozumel at world championships this morning, placing ninth in a time of 1:54:50 for the Olympic distance.

Grenier-Talavera started his race off with a solid swim, coming out of the water as one of the lead men in 23:49. After a quick transition he made the lead pack of the 10 athletes who put in a solid effort to gain 19 seconds over the very large chase pack. Unfortunately the effort wasn’t enough for the leaders as the chase pack caught up, forming a 50-man peloton for the second half of the eight-lap bike course.

The Netherlands’ Jorik Van Egdom took off on the run and no one managed to catch up to him for the entire 10 km course. Grenier-Talavera wasn’t able to get himself into contention for a podium finish but held strong on the run to clock 33:32 in the blazing Mexico heat and finish ninth overall.

Canada’s Alexis Lepage finished 26th.

Full results here.