In the end, there was no stopping Michele Bonacina (Italy) in the cross triathlon at the World Multisport Championships. The Italian arrived in Townsville as one of the favourites to win after winning gold at the 2023 European Cross Triathlon Championships, but on this day he had no real rivals. His overwhelming winning margin of 1 minute 49 seconds proved his superiority. But behind Bonacina, there was a fierce battle for the silver and bronze medals throughout the race.
The waves were coming in with force and the sea was much rougher than it had been in the days leading up to the race. Four swimmers performed better in the water than the others and took a solid lead at T1. Ben Allen (Australia) used all his vast experience to weather the waves and was the first to retire. He was followed by Hugo-Jan Bosscher (Netherlands), Bonacina and Sam Osborne (New Zealand). 2023 silver medallist Lukas Kokar (Czech Republic) was the next to retire, but with a 30-second gap and room for improvement.
Koquart was on a fast start in the bike race, closing in on the leaders. At the front, Bonacina took the lead and never looked back. It looked like Koquart would catch up with Bonacina, but a flat tire stopped the Czech rider. Meanwhile, Benjamin Forbes (Australia) set an incredible bike time of 47:47, becoming the fastest man by 27 seconds. Forbes's efforts saw him overtake Allen, Boscher and even Osborne. But Bonacina just couldn't catch up.
Off the bike, Bonacina had plenty of time to enjoy the ride, with his lead nearly unbroken. But he didn't slacken the pace. Instead, he set the fastest time in the field (23:40) and sealed a commanding victory. There was no one in sight as he rounded the final corner that led off the beach onto the blue carpet.
Further back, Forbes started next, but Osborne was on his tail. The experienced New Zealander, a World Cross Triathlon medallist, was clever on the hilly parts of the course and too fast on the flats. Osborne beat Forbes by a minute to take second place, while Forbes completed the podium in third place.
“I'm very happy with my performance,” Bonacina said after the race. “The swim wasn't that good but I stayed with the lead pack. At the start of the bike there were three of us and then I tried to put a big gap on Lucas (Coquard) but then I saw he had a puncture so I was left alone on the bike and then I tried to make up the gap on the run.”
Osborne noted how challenging the course and race were: “It was tough. I've been doing 70.3 circuits all year so it was a little shorter than I'm used to, so it was a bit of a shock to my body. The swim was super fast, the wind was pretty strong, the waves were pretty choppy so it was pretty hard. And the bike was probably a little over 50 minutes on so it felt the same the whole time. The run felt the same too. It was just really hard and really fast.”
“It was an amazing course! It was amazing!” Forbes added. “It was a typical mountain bike course. The bike was fast but the run after was painful. I was in pain the whole first lap but then it got better. By the end I was exhausted and just had to endure it.”
On a related note, Rhino Owen (South Africa) won the U23 World Championship title despite falling and being bloody as he crossed the line. He was understandably ecstatic about his first elite international victory.
