Ready for Tokyo: Mislawchuk dials in Olympic race plan with impressive win in Long Beach

With just over a week to go before the Olympic Games triathlon event in Tokyo, Canada’s medal favourite Tyler Mislawchuk proved he’s in fantastic form thanks to another impressive run at today’s America’s Triathlon Cup Long Beach. The race today was part of USA Triathlon’s Legacy Triathlon Weekend at Alamitos Beach, which is the proposed site for the triathlon events at the 2028 Olympic and Paralympic Games which have been awarded to Los Angeles.

Mislawchuk showed just how fit he is heading to Tokyo by leading the men out of the water in 9:12, with Canadian Olympic alternate Alexis Lepage a second behind along with the man who will be acting as a domestique for Mislawchuk in Tokyo, Matt Sharpe. Other Canadians in the mix early after the swim included John Rasmussen (11th, 9:17) and Charles Paquet (19th, 9:20).

A huge group formed on the bike, with as many as 45 men within 10 seconds of each other for much of the race, which is where the Canadian “domestique” strategy came to the fore – Sharpe rode down a late break, with Lepage leading the way into T2 with Mislawchuk right on his wheel to set up perfectly for the start of the run.

Once out on the run course Paquet joined Mislawchuk at the front for a while. By the halfway point of the run the lead group included the two Canadians along with Americans Matt McElroy and Austin Hindman, along with Mexico’s Aram Michell Penaflor Moysen and Rodrigo Gonzalez.

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With just under a mile to go Penaflor Moysen was in front pushing the pace with Mislawchuk marking his move – the pair were nine-seconds up on Hindman at that point. By the finish, though, Mislawchuk had showed his running prowess once again, hitting the line in 52:50 after a 14:48 5 km run. He was four seconds clear of Penaflor Moysen, which showed just how critical the Canadian strategy of getting Mislawchuk into T2 at the front is – the Mexican actually ran the 5 km 10 seconds faster. McElroy would charge to the line in third in 52:58, eight seconds back.

Paquet would hang tough for sixth in 53:19. Other Canadian finishers included: Pavlos Antoniades, 12th in 53:44, Lepage, 23rd in 54:18, Tristen Jones, 31st in 54:42, Leo Roy, 34th in 54:52, Chris Gregor, 35th in 54:52, Rasmussen, 42nd in 55:24 and James Olson-Keating, 49th in 57:22.

Tomlin tops women’s field, Jamnicky takes ninth

Canadian junior Kira Gupta Baltazar had an amazing swim, coming out on the feet of swim leader Tamara Gorman (USA). Those two were joined by another American, Erika Ackerlund, in a three-woman breakaway which managed to open up a gap of about 15 seconds on the huge chase group that included Olympic alternate Dominika Jamnicky, along with fellow Canadians Sophia Howell, Kyla Roy, Maira Carreau, Claudie Simard and Noemie Beaulieu.

The breakaway would get caught before T2, though, setting up a big group of 26 to duke things out in T2 and onto the 5 km run. By halfway through the run it appeared that the podium would include Americans Renee Tomlin and Gorman, along with Mexico’s Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal, who were running together 10 seconds up on the Ackerlund and Erin Edminster (USA), with Jamnicky 15 seconds behind in sixth.

In the end Tomlin would get to the line first (58:09) with Tapia Vidal taking second (58:11) and Gorman rounding out the podium (58:13).

Jamnicky would lose a few spots in the last half of the run to finish ninth in 58:52. Other Canadian finishers included: Beaulieu, 11th in 59:11, Carreau, 12th in 59:11 (yes, they had the same time!), Kupta-Baltazar, 14th in 59:16, Roy, 20th in 1:00:08, Brittany Warly, 21st in 1:00:22, Celine Marks, 24th in 1:01:04, Howell, 25th in 1:01:08, Simard, 26th in 1:01:12, Colette Reimer, 30th in 1:01:51, Ella Hnatyshyn, 33rd in 1:02:04, Ava Snyder, 43rd in 1:07:41 and Isabella Mastroianni, 48th in 1:11:08.