Coates and Grenier-Talavera make Tiszaujvaros Final
Five Canadians were on hand in Tiszaujvaros, Hungary for this weekend’s world cup event: Alex Coates, Dominika Jamnicky and Emy Legault, along with Alexis Lepage and Xavier Grenier-Talavera.
The weekend got started yesterday with two waves of semifinals for the women, followed by two semis for the men. Italy’s Sara Dossena took the first women’s semi, with Coates finishing 11th and earning herself a spot in today’s final. Jamnicky ended up 18th in the semi, while Legault finished 22nd. Russia’s Anna Shulgina took the second semi.
Australian Felicity Sheedy-Ryan took the final over Audrey Merle (France) and Dossena, despite coming out of the water over a minute behind the race leaders. Coates was out of the water about 20 seconds ahead of Sheedy-Ryan, but couldn’t keep pace with the speedy Australian on the bike and run, but still managed an impressive 13th place finish in the final.
Russia’s Igor Polyansky took the first semifinal in the men’s race, while Felix Duchampt from France took the second. Lepage was amongst the leaders in the swim and through much of the bike, but ended up dropping out during the run in the second semifinal. Another French athlete, Anthony Pujades, took the third semifinal in the men’s division. Hungary’s Gabor Faldum took the final men’s semifinal, in which Grenier-Talavera finished eighth, enough to earn him a spot in the final.
Polyanskiy took the final by seven seconds over Faldum, with Denmark’s Andreas Schilling rounding out the podium. Grenier-Talavera finished 16th.
