In the end, Michele Bonacina (ITA) was unstoppable in the cross triathlon of the Multisport World Championship. The Italian athlete arrived in Townsville as one of the favorites after taking gold at the 2023 Cross Triathlon European Championship, but on this day he had no real rivals. An overwhelming lead of 1 minute 49 seconds confirmed his superiority. Behind Bonacina, however, the race for silver and bronze was hotly contested throughout the race.

The waves were out in full force as the sea was noticeably choppier than it had been in the days leading up to the race. Four men performed better in the water than the others and built up a solid lead in T1. Ben Allen (AUS) used all of his considerable experience to navigate the waves and left the race first. Hugo Jan Bosscher (NED), Bonacina and Sam Osborne (NZL) were the others who followed Allen. Lukas Kocar (CZE), the silver medalist of the 2023 race, came out next but, trailing by 30 seconds, he still had work to do.

Kocar immediately stepped on the gas in the early stages of the bike race and closed in on the leaders. At the front, Bonacina took the lead and didn’t look back. It seemed Kocar would keep up with him until a puncture derailed the Czech athlete’s race. Meanwhile, Benjamin Forbes (AUS) posted a remarkable bike time of 47:47, the fastest time of any man by 27 seconds. His efforts took him past Allen, Bosscher and even Osborne. However, Bonacina remained out of reach.

With his lead virtually unassailable after the bike, Bonacina had plenty of breathing room to enjoy the run. But he didn’t let up. Instead, he ran the fastest time of the field (23:40) to secure his commanding victory. And as he rounded the final bend that took him from the beach to the blue carpet, there was no one else in sight.

Further back, Forbes was next to start, but Osborne was racing behind him. The experienced New Zealander, a former medallist at the World Cross Triathlon Championships, proved too smart on the undulating sections of the course and too fast on the flat sections. After overtaking Forbes by a minute, he came through to secure 2nd place. Forbes then completed the podium in 3rd place.

“I’m so happy with my performance,” said Bonacina after the race. “I wasn’t so good in the swim, but I stayed in the first group. On the bike there were three of us and then I tried to get a big lead over Lukas (Kocar), but I saw that he had a puncture, so I stayed alone on the bike and then tried to keep the lead on the run.”

Osborne noted how demanding the course and race were. “It was tough, a little bit shorter than what I’m used to, having raced the 70.3 course all year; a bit of a shock to the body! The swim was insanely fast and it was pretty windy so it was pretty tough with the swell. And then the bike, we probably didn’t ride much more than 50 minutes so it was all in the way the whole time, and the run is kind of the same. It was just so hard and so fast.”

“Great course, I loved it!” added Forbes. “It was a proper mountain bike course. The cycling was fast but the running was painful. I had side stitches the whole first lap and then I kept going. By the end I was so exhausted I was just trying to keep going.”

On a related note, Ryno Owen (RSA) took the U23 World Championship title despite suffering a crash that left him bloodied as he crossed the finish line, understandably delighted with the first elite international win of his career.