World Triathlons Rising Stars Series – Diego Moya (Chile)
The world of triathlon events was lightweight this week-end but one competition that did gain our attention was the 2021 Americas Triathlon Championships, St George, Utah and a rising star in the shape of U23 Diego Moya of Chile.
Last week-end St George, Utah, welcomed elite, U23, & junior international races with top athletes appointed by the national federations of PATCO, a continental division of World Triathlon. Athletes from North, Central and South America to have the chance to earn points towards their World Triathlon ranking.
Often, the focus of up-and coming talent is on the power-house nations of the sport from Europe. USA and the Oceania region. Nevertheless, there are emerging nations who are beginning to develop athletes who are equally capable of matching and surpassing the best-known elites in the sport. The Moroccan triathlete Jawad Abdelmoula winning the World Triathlon Cup Tongyeong last Friday proves that point.
One rising star who has caught our eye this week-end is Chilean Diego Moya who won the U23 Americas Triathlon Championships beating 9 of USA’s top talent pool of triathletes who were running in the race and relegating two of them namely, Chase McQueen and Austin Hindman, to second and third podium spots.
What do we know about this talented Chilean.
Diego Moya at the age of 22 was the youngest triathlete competitor in the Tokyo Olympic Games men’s individual triathlon event. The Chilean had a tremendous debut in Tokyo with a a more than respectable 30th place in the, among 51 of the world best triathletes finishing just 3 minutes behind the gold medalist, Norwegian Kristian Blummenfelt.
The road to the Olympic Games is rarely straightforward, requiring great effort and great sacrifice. Luckily, Moya is one of three triathletes who World Triathlon have supported financially through the Chilean National Federation in order to help them compete at Continental and World level.
For a young athlete like Moya who had not quite broken into the top elite level, it was a remarkable experience to line up in Tokyo against world champions like of Blummenfelt, Vincent Luis and Jonny Brownlee.
Following his Tokyo experience Moya went on to race in the 2021 U23 World Triathlon Championship in Edmonton and just missed out on a podium place finishing in fourth place one and half minutes behind the winner Hungarian Csongor Lehmann, and just behind German Tim Hellwing (winner of the Hamburg WTCS) and currently ranked World No 1 and Australian Matthew Hauser.
Winning the 2021 U23 Americas Triathlon Championships against a talented pool of American and Canadian triathletes only cements Diego Moya’s place in the triathlon category of rising stars and one to watch for the future.
