The Vanek siblings Akos and Margit became local heroes last weekend after taking gold and silver respectively at the Tiszaujvaros World Cup in Hungary, with Akos becoming the first Hungarian to win the race in 18 years.
Equally poignantly, this was the first ‘Tizzy’ held since founder Gabor Markus passed away last year, having started the event over two decades ago to indulge his sons’ interest in tri. This year his son Gergely – who has since become the ITU’s Sport Director – ran the event along with his brother Balazs, with hundreds of thousands of participants and spectators turning up for what has now become a ten-day multisport festival.
In the men’s sprint distance race (750m swim/20km bike/5km run), Akos Vanek was fifth out of the water and quickly assumed pole position on the bike, but lost considerable ground and entered transition in 28th position. He then made up the difference with the second-fastest run split of the day to cross the line in 53:51mins.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Rostyslav Pevtsov found himself in 27th place out of the swim but put in the third-fastest bike split and fastest run of the day to take silver just one second behind Vanek, but just ahead of another Hungarian athlete, Gabor Faldum, who took bronze.
In the women’s race, Rachel Klamer (NED) was 13th out of the water but put in the fastest bike split and second-quickest run to take gold in 59:31, just seven seconds ahead of Margit Vanek who overtook numerous athletes including Carolina Routier (ESP) and Pamela Oliveira (BRA) on the run for silver, with Oliveira taking bronze.
For the full results head here.
(Image: Janos Schmidt/ITU Media)