National junior champion Avinash Anamalay placed 15th out of 16 competitors at the ITU Under 23 world duathlon championships in Ottawa, Canada, on Saturday.
Competing in his first event at international level, the 18-year-old clocked a time of one hour, two minutes and 13 seconds to finish nine minutes behind winner Richard Horton of Great Britain, the reigning Under 23 world champion. The sprint distance duathlon consists of a 5km run, a 20km bike ride and a 2.5km run to the finish.
Anamalay's time for his first 5k was 16:13 and his transition from the run to the bike was a competitive 29 seconds.
However, it was the bike ride with strong crosswinds to turn out to be his achilles heel as he was logged between two packs to benefit from their draft. He fought the strong winds by himself and paid the price as shown in a time of 35 minutes.
His transition off the bike was a competitive time of 48 seconds and he was getting into his groove, closing into the front runners in a time of eight minutes and 57secs.
Anamalay's performance was greatly acknowledged by his fellow competitors as he was the rookie in the bunch in a fast-paced race.
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