Had this been a boxing bout, it would have been said no one laid a glove on Csongor Lehmann (HUN). For most of today’s final, the men of the World Triathlon Cup did not even get close enough to share his airspace, let alone issue any counter-punch as he sauntered to a fifth consecutive win. “I can’t lose here,” he said straight after the race. On this form, it is easy to see this run of home glory continuing and maybe he really won’t ever lose in Tiszy again.
The signs were ominous from the start as an early breakaway slipped away in the water. Márk Dévay (HUN) emerged first, 2 seconds up on Igor Dupuis (FRA). Márton Kropkó (HUN) and Lehmann followed and that quartet were 17 seconds clear of their closest challenger. Kropkó had been the fastest swimmer in his semi-final while the other three had manufactured a similar breakaway that dominated their heat. The foreshadowing was clear. They quickly found their mojo, extending their lead with every lap. By the midpoint of the bike, 33 seconds separated them from the next chase pack.
A lesson of the earlier women’s race had been that such a gap was recoverable. After all, two of the women’s medallists had come from the chase. However the leaders were in the groove. As they whizzed through transition to the tune of Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up”, this was not a lead they were going to give away.
Thus once the bike ended the deficit stood at 50 seconds. Lehmann led in and out of T2 while Kropkó gave up valuable seconds. Even in the first movements of the run, though, Lehmann’s superiority was blatant. Up the road he went with no one able to stay within 20 seconds of him. It was all so easy.
Jack Willis (AUS) brought the large chase group onto the run but the King of Tiszy was gone. Nor were the chasers going to catch Lehmann’s breakaway partners. Dévay held the early advantage but Dupuis ultimately came through to seal a maiden World Cup medal in 2nd place. In turn, Dévay held off Kropkó to return to the World Cup podium after a difficult winter beset by injury. This, though, is Csongor Lehmann’s party. And no one was going to crash it.
What they said:
Csongor Lehmann: “I can win here five times, but it’s still like winning here the first time, it’s always very special. I’m always very stressed when I go into this race because there’s a lot of pressure on me by myself… I’m letting in this energy which is coming from the city. It can’t get any more special.”
Márk Dévay: “I had a great weekend to be honest. Yesterday was pretty cool: easy swim, really nice bike and a relatively easy run. I paced myself very, very cautiously. I knew that it set our start numbers today, but I didn’t really care. Humbly, I’m a good swimmer, but yes, I didn’t really care about the start position. Today it was a really good swim, a really nice bike. We worked a lot, me and Csongi. I was hoping for the silver, but the French guy had a lot in the tank. Bronze is still pretty good, especially in my home country, so yeah, really happy.”