A grim day awaited the athletes in St. Peters with rains so torrential the racing had to be delayed. As a result, the much anticipated showdown between former world champions Katie Zaferes and Gwen Jorgensen was put on hold.
Fortunately, the weather turned and blue skies emerged in time for the women to start.
Women’s race
To kick off the Sprint distance affair, the women began with a standing in-water start. A couple of early dolphin dives did not seem to yield too great a reward and those that ran further through the shallows appeared to fare better.
Katie Zaferes wasted no time in taking charge of the race. With a split of 9:47 and was the only woman under 10 minutes. Liberty Ricca followed in 10:08 but by the time she made it onto the bike with a handful of others, Zaferes had vanished up the road.
A pack of over ten women formed to hunt the 2019 world champion down. Among the chase were Gwen Jorgensen, Amelie Kretz, Dominika Jamnicky and Bethany Cook so the pack certainly had the firepower to bridge the gap.
On paper, then, Zaferes was there for the taking. The reality was different.
With the bit between her teeth, Zaferes tore round the course and produced a field-leading split of 31:35. No one got close to her.
After losing 22 seconds in the water, Jorgensen lost another 46 seconds on the bike. The chase were not slouching by any means; Zaferes was simply too quick.
As a result, when Zaferes emerged onto the run she did so with a insurmountable lead and set about sealing the win. Although she showed some signs of waning in the later stages as she shoulders betrayed the vast efforts she had exerted, she nonetheless recorded the third fastest run split of the day (17:29).
In a statement performance, Zaferes took the win by 50 seconds. Having been denied the gold at her last Americas Cup race, her strength across all three disciplines was impressive and she is looking better every time she races.
Jorgensen charged after Zaferes and managed to split of 17:08 to take silver. She did not, however, log the fastest run of the day. Instead Anahi Alvarez Corral ran through from the pack behind Jorgensen’s chase group.
With a time of 16:49, Alvarez surges through the field to win bronze. To out-split someone of Jorgensen’s calibre so comprehensively stood as a timely reminder that Alvarez is one the biggest up and coming running talents in the sport. However, in a dramatic turn, she was disqualified for not serving a penalty.
Amelie Kretz was consequently bumped up to the bronze medal.
Men’s race
In contrast to the women’s race, the field did not separate very much in the men’s swim. Brett Saunders of Canada led the way in 9:34. It said a lot about Zaferes’ day that she would not have been out of place racing the men in the water, such was her speed.
On the bike, a seven man group soon escaped off the front. The front pack worked well together and quickly established a substantial lead over the chase. Tyler Smith and Jeremy Briand logged the fastest splits of the breakaway with times of 28:07. By comparison, the best bike split of the chase went to Ka’eo Kruse with 28:56.
With a big margin arriving into T2, the focus of the race had narrowed to the leaders.
Briand and Charles Paquet took control of the run and Marc Dubrick was the first to be dropped. Josiah Ney, Andrew Shellenberger, Smith (Darr) and Smith (Tyler) managed to keep pace for the first couple of kilometres. Tyler Smith and Shellenberger were the next to pop, though.
As the front became a four man race, Paquet pulled ahead. No one could match his burst of speed and he cruised to the fastest split of the day in 15:24. That was enough to carry him to a winning margin of 21 seconds.
At the finish line, Paquet had time to turn and watch as his countryman Briand held off a late charge from Darr Smith to take silver, with the American earning bronze.
View the full results here.
