It was not until the rain cleared that the race revealed its hand. In sodden conditions in Yokohama, the athletes lined up on the pontoon with a number of questions to be answered.
Two years after his win in the city, could Kristian Blummenfelt return to the summit of the short distance mountain? Only a week prior, he had still been dabbling with the longer distance.
Was Hayden Wilde ready to translate his Sprint distance form over the Olympic format?
And what did Leo Bergere, the world champion, have to offer after a low-key opening to his season?
Few answers were to be found in the water. Dylan McCullough took control of the first lap of the swim as Matthew Hauser monopolised the space on his feet. To Hauser’s side, Bergere smartly captured the prized real estate that is Márk Dévay’s draft and followed the Hungarian to the front.
As the athletes jumped to commence their second swim lap, Bergere found himself in 5th, only 4 seconds behind McCullough. Wilde lurked in 21st, 16 seconds down. Meanwhile Blummenfelt sat in 48th with a deficit of 26 seconds.
Dévay assumed his classic place at the head of the race in the second lap; as he cruised, the rest of the field thrashed to keep up. Jonas Schomburg moved through the field to join Dévay but there was little by way of splintering. Indeed much of the pack remained together until the late stages.
When Dévay exited, he did so with a long trail behind him. Bergere rose in 8th, 12 seconds down. Most impressively, Wilde held his position and lost no further time. As a result, he was only 4 seconds off his rival for the world title. On balance, that probably represented the best Olympic distance swim of Wilde’s career thus far. Particularly over the second lap, he showed that the work he has put in over the winter is beginning to pay dividends.
Morgan Pearson had a quietly good swim to exit in 19th and 19 seconds behind. Blummenfelt, however, could only manage 51st and lost 44 seconds.
Bergere hit the front early on the bike and began to push the pace. Wilde, though, was instantly upon him and did not let him go. No real groups formed in the first kilometre as the race remained a little nebulous. Eventually a front pack of twenty men coalesced with the likes of Pearson and Csongor Lehmann joining Bergere and Wilde.
Wilde took it upon himself to drive the pace but Bergere was quite happy to sit on him without breaking a sweat. A few metres back, Pearson and Lehmann went about their business without any fuss. The real story of the bike leg was Blummenfelt’s surge to chase the front pack.
Over the first half of the bike, he hacked away at the gap, reducing it with every lap. Slowly but surely, the field came back together and Blummenfelt bridged to bring the front pack to forty-four men.
Lehmann and Vasco Vilaca hit the front for turns. After Vilaca’s medal at WTCS Abu Dhabi, he was a potential medallist that had not received an enormous amount of attention. Even when he took over the tempo, the focus remained on the two bikes that followed.
Bergere had not left Wilde’s side at all. Notwithstanding that the two men are rivals for the world title, it seemed as if they risked being a little remiss for them to focus on each other to such a great extent and overlook the likes of Pearson and Jelle Geens.
After Bergere led the men into the final lap of the bike, it was Blummenfelt’s turn to hit the front. he powered round the lap, determined to keep all behind him. As the run drew closer, the rain continued to pour and it was hard to tell whether Wilde, Bergere and Blummenfelt had expended too much energy on the bike. Some of those behind like Vilaca and Geens had ridden a tad more sensibly.
With T2, though, came the sight fans wanted to see: Bergere and Blummenfelt, the past two world champions, shoulder to shoulder, leading the way. After a fast transition, Bergere was first out onto the run with Geens for company. By contrast, Blummenfelt got a little stuck in his transition.
As it had been in the swim and bike, the run quickly became a contest between Wilde and Bergere. The New Zealand athlete took up the lead as the Frenchman floated behind. One by one the pursuers slipped away and when Geens dropped back, Wilde and Bergere were alone at the front.
A burst from Pearson saw him pass Blummenfelt and threaten to join the leaders. After a fast 5km in Lausanne recently, Adrien Briffod also moved up to 4th. Early on the second lap, Dorian Coninx came past Blummenfelt as the Norwegian slipped out of the top-8 and a cluster of men gathered behind the leading pair.
Then, seemingly out of nowhere, Wilde pulled clear of Bergere. There was no obvious indication of an attack but his pace clearly rose and suddenly Bergere was 5 seconds behind. 5 seconds became 10 seconds but Wilde did not peek behind to check. He simply continued at his metronomic rate as the gap widened. Bergere opted to take a gel as he lost time but his attention would soon turn behind.
As Hauser overtook Blummenfelt, Pearson pulled up; he did not, however, drop out and admirably stuck out his race to finish 44th. Coninx and Vilaca also drove through the field to try to close the gap to the world champion.
With Briffod, Coninx, Geens and Vilaca lining up to take their shot at him, Bergere tried to up his pace. That made little impact, though, on the growing lead of Wilde.
As the rain finally relented and the sun came out, Wilde cruised to the first Olympic distance win of his career. Into the last lap, his lead had grown to 28 seconds. After the disappointment of his season opener in Abu Dhabi, he reaffirmed his world title credentials in emphatic style.
The race, though, was not yet over, even for Wilde. The chase group behind had caught Bergere and a good day for Wilde now had the prospect of becoming even better.
As Hauser passed Briffod, Coninx attacked to try to seal 2nd place. Bergere and Vilaca were able to hold onto his coattails and prevented him from opening a significant gap.
If any of them had looked over their shoulder, they would have seen that Hauser had made the jump to them having risen from deep and now threatened to beat them all. While Wilde began to milk his win, the tempo ratcheted up to a full sprint behind. On the blue carpet, as Wilde exchanged high fives with fans, the quartet of Vilaca, Bergere, Coninx and Hauser thundered after him.
It was only a late look from Wilde that spared his blushes as he jumped slightly and took a couple of extra quick steps to be sure to cross the line first.
Hauser stormed to a brilliant silver, his first Olympic distance WTCS medal. Vilaca held off Coninx to take bronze. Bergere will be left to look for answers after falling to 5th place.
Briffod and Geens were the next to finish while Blummenfelt rallied to salvage 8th place. Lehmann and Henri Schoeman closed out the top-10.
View the full results here.
