In the end, there was no stopping Michele Bonacina (ITA) in the cross triathlon at the World Multisport Championships. The Italian athlete arrived in Townsville as one of the favourites for the win after striking gold at the 2023 European Cross Triathlon Championships but this was not a day in which he had any true rivals. A crushing margin of victory of 1 minute 49 seconds confirmed his supremacy. Behind Bonacina, though, the race for silver and bronze was closely fought for the entire race.
The waves were out in force as the sea was significantly choppier than it had been in the days leading up to the race. Four men fared better than the rest in the water and earned a solid lead into T1. Ben Allen (AUS) used all of his considerable experience to navigate the waves and was the first to exit. Hugo Jan Bosscher (NED), Bonacina and Sam Osborne (NZL) were the others to follow Allen. Lukas Kocar (CZE), the silver medallist at the 2023 edition of the race, was next out but with a deficit of 30 seconds he had work to do.
Kocar promptly hammered round the opening stages of the bike and closed in on the leaders. At the front, Bonacina took over the lead and did not look back. It seemed Kocar would go with him until a puncture thwarted the Czech athlete’s race. Meanwhile, Benjamin Forbes (AUS) detonated a remarkable bike split of 47:47, the fastest of any man by 27 seconds. His efforts took him past Allen, Bosscher and even Osborne. Bonacina, however, remained out of reach.
With his lead virtually unassailable off the bike, Bonacina had plenty of breathing space with which he could enjoy the run. Nevertheless, he did not ease up. Instead, he ripped the fastest run split of the field (23:40) to seal his superlative victory and when he rounded the final corner taking him from the beach to the blue carpet there was no one else in sight.
Further back, Forbes was the next onto the run but Osborne hared after him. The experienced New Zealander, a former medallist at the World Cross Triathlon Championships, proved too canny on the undulating parts of the route and too fast on the flats. After out-splitting Forbes by a minute, he came through to secure 2nd place. Forbes then completed the podium in 3rd place.
“I’m so happy about my performance,” said Bonacina after the race. “I wasn’t so good in the swim but I stayed in the first pack. We were three at the beginning of the bike and then I tried to take a big gap with Lukas (Kocar) but I saw that he had a puncture so I remained alone on the bike and then I tried to manage the gap on the run.”
Osborne noted how challenging the course and racing was. “It was tough, a little bit shorter than what I’m used to as I’ve been on the 70.3 circuit all year; bit of a shock to the system! The swim was crazy fast and there was quite a bit of wind out there so it was pretty hard with the chop. And then the bike, we were probably riding for not much over 50 minutes so it’s just like all in the entire time, and the run’s kind of the same. It was just so hard and so fast.”
“Great course, loved it!” added Forbes. “It was a proper mountain biker’s course. The bike was fast and then the run was painful. I had a stitch for the whole first lap and then it opened up. I was so done by the end, I was just trying to hang on.”
On a related note, Ryno Owen (RSA) claimed the World U23 title despite taking a tumble that left him bloodied as when he then crossed the line. He was understandably delighted with the first elite international win of his career.
