Lightning did indeed strike twice.
At the Weihai World Cup in August, Bianca Seregni had stormed to a maiden World Cup win. She had dominated the swim, carving out a big lead over the field, and then run away to victory with the quickest split of the day.
To go with it, her teammate Ilaria Zane had hauled herself onto the podium with a bold late surge on the run.
In many ways, the first of the two Chinese World Cup races of 2023 would have been hard to top. Yet in Chengdu, at the second event, the Italian pair picked up where they left off.
Once again, Seregni was peerless in the water. She clocked 19:24 for the 1500m with the next fastest athlete (Yifan Yang) emerging 23 seconds later. After Yang, another 9 second gap appeared before her teammate Xinyu Lin exited.
As had been the case in Weihai, Seregni could afford to waltz through T1 at a leisurely pace. Rather than tackle the entire race solo, she took her time, making her way through transition 10 seconds slower than Lin. Once onto the bike, though, there was still nobody around Seregni.
It did not take long for Seregni to be caught on the bike. While the likes of Claire Michel, Lin and Tereza Zimovjanova motored on the bike, Seregni eased through the opening part of the bike and let herself be swallowed up by the pack.
In total, twenty-two women rode together in the pack. In a field of only thirty-two, that spelled the end of the race for several athletes, including World Cup medallists Romana Gajdošová and Anahi Alvarez Corral, as well as the evergreen Juri Ide.
As had been the case in the men’s race earlier in the day, the bike course in Chengdu did not lend itself to many major moves in the first 20km. A bold move from Erica Ackerlund changed that.
The American launched a solo attack against the lead pack and gained a decent advantage. For a time, it even looked as if she would pull away from the pack entirely.
However, tireless work from the likes of Michel, Lin, Zane and others kept a lid on Ackerlund’s attempt. Before T2 arrived, the leaders were back together and Ackerlund’s move had been thwarted.
Seregni hung at the back of the group as it entered transition. She was a little more lax than her rivals in the changeover and lost several seconds. As Michel and Zimovjanova pushed ahead, Seregni seemed on the back foot.
Within the space of a minute, the Italian athlete turned the situation on its head. She blazed into the lead and did not look back. With a smooth, compact running style, she stretched her lead to 10 seconds and then gained a few more seconds afterwards.
Michel headed up the chase, with Lin for company, as Zane and Zimovjanova slipped back. No one, though, could lift a finger against Seregni.
With the fastest run split of the day by 30 seconds, it was a perfect match of her Weihai performance. Seregni sailed to the finish line, 26 seconds ahead of her closest rival, to earn a second World Cup victory.
Michel soldiered on to take an impressive 2nd place. In doing so, she continued her run of fine form after high finishes at WTCS Pontevedra and the Rome World Cup.
To complete the Weihai repeat, Zane then summoned a huge final push in the last few kilometres to overhaul Lin and claim the bronze medal. For her efforts, Lin took 4th place which represented a big step forward for her. After winning silver at the Asian Games recently, she is becoming a crucial asset to the Chinese team.
Zimovjanova then rounded out the top-5. Not only was that the Czech national champion’s best result of the year, it marked her first time inside the top-5 of a World Cup race.
Throughout the field, there were a number of athletes that would have been thrilled with their results. When all was said and done, though, the happiest team in China was, once again, the Italian one.
You can view the full results here.
