It is traditionally the opening of the Challenge Almere-Amsterdam weekend, and today, too, the Recruit a Student Junior Challenge was the first race to take place in the jam-packed triathlon weekend in The Netherlands. Lars van Zessen and Julia van Well were the fastest triathletes over the 400-meter swim, 9-kilometer bike ride and 2-kilometer run.
This morning the weather forecast was pretty bad, but as if the weather gods were in favor of the approximately 500 junior athletes, in the afternoon the sky over Almere opened up totally while the sun was shining brightly and the weather conditions were actually perfect. This was evident when Lars van Zessen won the 16+ race in a magnificent time of 31:10 minutes. He stayed well ahead of Bjorn Engel (33:33) and Daan van Oogen (36:14), among others. In the U16-category, the win went to Miika Maruska (38:12), while Kvist Soesman (38:29) and Mees Otto (38:40) completed the podium.
Among the ladies, the overall win went to Julia van Well, who competed in the U16-category. Van Well thus delivered a performance of stature, winning the race in 39:37. Alexandra Koenis was second in 42:04 and Noena van den Berg third in 43:13. In the women’s 16+ category, the win went to Julia Buschgens (40:05), while Liv Groot (47:13) and Isabel Marcus (47:28) took the silver and bronze.
“We are finally off with our race weekend,” said Race Director Richard Belderok as he stood visibly enjoying himself along the sidelines watching all the athletes. “The start with this Recruit a Student Junior Challenge is always very important for us. On the one hand because we like to enthuse young children about this beautiful sport, on the other hand because for ourselves it marks the start of a weekend full of exciting races. Finally it’s showtime once again.”
Several triathlon races will take place in Almere over the next few days. Saturday, September 14, the program includes the European Championships Long Distance (3.8 kilometers of swimming, 180 kilometers of cycling and 42.2 kilometers of running) and the Middle Distance (half triathlon).
