Multisport was at the forefront of one of the biggest sporting events of 2025 over the past weekend. As Chengdu played host to the World Games, a sporting festival mirroring the Olympic Games for non-Olympic sports, the duathlon events produced a set of spectacular races. Find out all that happened in Chengdu as well as elsewhere in the triathlon world in this week’s Monday Morning Mix.
Chengdu World Games
Anahi Alvarez Corral (MEX) timed her race to perfection as she struck gold. The World Triathlon Cup winner had been part of a three-woman pack to break clear on the opening 5km run. Mara Varo Zubiri (ESP), the World Duathlon Championships silver medallist, was the first woman into T1 having run 17:20 with Alvarez and Belgium’s Jeanne Dupont only a second down.
Over the 30km bike, several athletes were able to close the gap to the leaders but no one could break away to turn the race on its head. As a result, the fight for victory came down to the second 5km run and here Alvarez was ready. She powered to a split of 17:19, the fastest of the day to move clear. Notably, she was the only woman to run faster on her second 5km. Varo followed only 2 seconds behind to take silver while Dupont held on for the bronze medal.
In the men’s race, Benjamin Choquert (FRA) starred with a performance that was just as balanced as that of Alvarez. The field stayed a little closer together over the first 5km run with Arnaud Dely (BEL) and Thibaut De Smet (BEL) sharing the lead in 15:18. Only a second behind was Choquert, as was Vincent Bierinckx (BEL).
Choquert, the reigning world duathlon champion, marshalled the bike well as attacks fizzed around him; among the aggressors was Ondrej Kubo (SVK) who seemed intent to break the field up at every opportunity. Yet no one managed to escape and, once again, the race came down to the final run. Like Alvarez, Choquert had the best second run, clocking 15:20 to almost match his opening effort. That was enough to put him 9 seconds clear of silver medallist Dely, handing him a relatively comfortable victory. A further 10 seconds back, Bierinckx then rounded out the podium.
Later in the Games, the duathlon returned with the hotly-contested 2×2 relay. Each athlete on the one-man-one-woman teams took on a 2km run, 6km bike and another 1km twice. Spain ultimately emerged triumphant with Varo teaming up with 2024 world duathlon champion Javier Martin Morales. Following mere seconds behind were Team Belgium and Team Netherlands, with Team Mexico forced to settle for 4th place. View the full results here.
Riga Europe Junior Cup
Over in Latvia, Kira Ellis (PHI) impressed on her way to gold at the Riga Europe Junior Cup. Ellis, a previous Asia Junior Cup gold medallist, beat out Luca Vanderbruggen (BEL) and Sarah Walter (GER) after clocking the fastest 5km run of the day (17:36). Earlier in the race, Beate Jansone (LAT) had led the 750m swim in a time of 11:59. That was enough to create space for a seven-athlete front pack which contained the eventual medallists.
The men’s race followed a similar pattern as Christian Ache (GER) prevailed in a running race over Isaac Lamprecht (USA) and Henry Haag (GER). The swim was led out by Ilio Kopriva (BEL) in 10:29. He had Haag clamped on his feet but the rest of the field lagged behind in disarray. Gradually, a select front pack from what was a massive field of 60 formed at the front, bringing Lamprecht and Ache back into contention. Then, on the run, Ache dropped a sizzling 14:39 to beat Lamprecht by 12 seconds, with Haag another 6 seconds back. View the full results here.