Thunderstorms delayed the late afternoon start of the ITU Junior Men’s World Championship, turning the planned sprint triathlon into a duathlon. This suited Manoel Messias to a T, as the Brazilian outsprinted Germany’s Peer Sönksen to take Brazil’s first-ever ITU Junior Men’s World title.

Messias navigated the wide, wet streets of the bike course like a hydroplane, finishing the multi-lap 5k run, 20k bike leg and 2.5k run in 51:50 with a 1 second margin on Sönksen and 11 seconds on 3rd-place finisher Léo Bergere of France.

A lead pack of 20 finished the opening 5k run within 5 seconds of the 14:56 splits of early leaders Roberto Sanchez Mantecon of Spain, Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger of France, and Christian Wilson of Australia. That group also included eventual winner Messias, as well as silver medalist Sönksen and bronze medalist Bergere.

Sanchez Mantecon led a mini-break on the bike leg, followed closely by Gustav Iden of Norway, Taylor Reid of New Zealand, and Max Studer of Switzerland plus 10 more Juniors.

On the final 2.5 kilometer run lap, Sönsksen led, rounding the Buckingham Fountain, but Messias flew past the German at the final chute to take the victory.

ITU World Championship
Chicago, Illinois
September 17, 2015
R 5k / B 20k / R 2.5k

Results

Junior Men

1. Manoel Messias (BRA) 51:50
2. Peer Sönksen (GER) 51:51
3. Léo Bergere (FRA) 52:01
4. Roberto Sanchez Mantecon (ESP) 52:08
5. Matthew Hauser (AUS) 52:10
6. Luke Willian (AUS) 52:12
7. Gustav Iden (NOR) 52:16
8. Ben Dijkstra (GBR) 52:20
9. Charles Paquet (CAN) 52:24
10. Gabriel Sandör (SWE) 52:32
25. Austin Hindman (USA) 54:10
34. Darr Smith (USA) 55:17
49. Alec Wilimovsky (USA) 56:24
52. Chase McQueen (USA) 56:58