French double in junior races as Houart and Douche grab the world titles in Wollongong

French duo Léa Houart and Tristan Douche took the respective junior titles at the Triathlon World Championships in Wollongong, Australia.

Their methods of victory were contrasting, but both fully deserved.

Pre-race women’s favourite Fanni Szalai of Hungary had to settle for the silver medal for the second year in succession while in the men’s race, it was Britain’s Alex Robin who filled the runner-up spot.

Here’s how it played out…

Women’s race – Houart sees off Szalai

It was Houart herself who led the field out of the 750m sea swim, with Fanni Szalai (HUN) and Lisa Lecompte (FRA) just behind but defending champion Ambre Grasset (FRA) was nearly a minute behind.

Diana Dunajska (SVK) missed the front group on the bike after having to serve a 10-second penalty for being late to the race briefing and she would have to work hard on the rest of the bike to try and stay within range of what was a five-woman front group.

Starting the run and Houart was back in front after a rapid T2 with pre-race favourite Szalai having work to do. But the Hungarian phenom bridged back up to Houart and briefly took the lead.

However a stunning attack from Houart on the final lap settled things and she powered to a clear-cut victory, 36 seconds ahead of Szalai, with Dunajska finishing strongly for a well-deserved bronze.

“It’s amazing!” said Houart afterwards who was stepping up from third place in 2024. “It’s my last race as a junior so I worked very hard this season. Over the summer I broke my wrist so I didn’t train very well, but after that I restarted and had the World Championships in my head.”

Szalai is still young enough at 17 to have two more attempts at the junior race after successive runner-up spots and she said: “One race is not going to define me and it will give me inspiration for the winter to work even harder and smarter.”

Men’s race – Douche battles to hard-fought win

Douche had work to do after the swim, with a 27-seconds deficit to the lead pack.

But he found his way into a large front group on the bike and then timed his kick to perfection on the run as he overhauled pacesetter Robin.

Robin kept on superbly though to continue Britain’s fine start to the Championship after Oliver Conway was crowned the men’s U23 champion on Thursday.

Ignacio Flores of Chile rounded out the podium in third.

“It’s just incredible,” said a delighted Douche afterwards. “The swim was good, the bike was very hard, and I gave it everything on the run to take the win. I knew my quality in running.”

Meanwhile Robin said: “It’s a privilege to be here, representing your country. It’s a great experience seeing how the U23s and elites go about their training day to day and seeing what I can learn from them. It’s been a great two weeks here on prep camp and then to top it off with that is just amazing.”

Junior World Championship 2025 results

Friday 17 October 2025 – 750m / 20km / 5km

Women

Men