Author: Benjamin Eastman

Leonie Periault Fires Warning Shot With Yokohama Win

Benjamin Eastman

Last season, Cassandre Beaugrand became the first French woman to make it onto the overall women’s podium in the WTCS. After winning two races, she added a bronze medal at the WTCS Final in Pontevedra to take 2nd behind Beth Potter in the standings. Around half a minute later in Pontevedra, Emma Lombardi crossed the line to take 3rd overall in the 2023 Series and hand France another medallist. Entering the Olympic year, there was a risk that Leonie Periault would be a little overlooked on the French team following…

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What are the Stories to Watch at WTCS Yokohama 2024

Benjamin Eastman

Excitement is rising as the belated WTCS season opener will get underway in Yokohama tomorrow. Over seven months have passed since the last race in the Series while the shortened 2024 season means that every race has acquired a new edge. Throw in the Olympic battles throughout the field and a pair of instant classics could be in store. Before the racing gets underway, take a look below at some of the main topics to track this weekend. Who is in shape? The most basic point with which to start…

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Takeaways From Round 1 of the 2024 French Grand Prix

Benjamin Eastman

The 2024 French Grand Prix got off to a flying start with two dramatic races in Fréjus. Jessica Fullagar capitalised on a breakaway in the women’s event while Alex Yee was too swift for his rivals in the men’s race. Read on to find out out someone of the main takeaways from the event and the latest standings in the two competitions.   Poissy do Poissy things The defending women’s champions won the round in fairly comprehensive style. Candice Denizot was the top performer as she was pipped to the…

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Lombardi Primed To Take Maiden WTCS Win This Weekend

Benjamin Eastman

Looking back to the last Olympic year, in an admittedly pandemic-hit 2021, the first two rounds of the WTCS season were won by first-time winners. Taylor Knibb powered to the gold in Yokohama while Maya Kingma, having medalled in Yokohama, went on to win WTCS Leeds. While the two races are too small a sample size to derive any meaningful conclusions, maybe there is something to the trend of new faces making steps forward in the build-up to the Games. One such athlete that could repeat history at WTCS Yokohama…

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Men’s Paris Contenders Line Up To Make Yokohama Statement

Benjamin Eastman

In the absence of Hayden Wilde and Alex Yee, the past two men’s winners of WTCS Yokohama, this weekend’s race in Japan will see a different man step onto the top of the podium. Wilde and Yee opted to instead race at the French Grand Prix season opener in Fréjus, with Yee coming out on top. When looking at the potential candidates to succeed the Yee-Wilde axis in Yokohama, the natural place to start is with the most recent winner of a WTCS race. The men’s world champion, Dorian Coninx,…

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Middaugh and Solis take the wins at Calima Americas Cup

Benjamin Eastman

Capping a busy weekend of racing was the Americas Cup in Calima, Colombia. As was the case with the African Cup, Asia Cup and French Grand Prix events that also took place, Calima offered a Sprint distance race. Men’s race The men’s race was a little all over the place in Calima. Carter Stuhlmacher of America played the first discipline to his advantage as he blasted a time of 9:36. The majority of the field were over half a minute back, although, concerningly for Stuhlmacher, his compatriot Reese Vannerson was…

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Subic Bay Asia Cup victories taken by Bate and Jeong

Benjamin Eastman

Tricky conditions awaited the athletes at the Asia Cup in Subic Bay, Philippines, as the heat proved a major factor in both the men’s and women’s races. Although the event took place over the Sprint distance, energy conservation and heat management proved important, with both races coming down to tight finishes. Men’s race The front of the men’s swim had rather an Australian complexion as four Australian men occupied the top-5 slots. Jack Crome, a European Junior Cup winner in 2023, led the way in 8:57 while Christopher Deegan followed…

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Graf and Arpinelli take victories in Yasmine Hammamet

Benjamin Eastman

The African Cup in Yasmine Hammamet, Tunisia, took place yesterday and served up two contrasting races. Yasmine Hammamet played a notable role in a wider story in 2023 as Tim Hellwig’s win at the race last season propelled him on to high finishes at WTCS Montreal and the Paris Test Event before medalling at the WTCS Final in Pontevedra. The winners of this year’s edition will no doubt be hoping for a similar spike in form. Men’s race Evidently keen to ape Hellwig’s 2023 narrative, Henry Graf of Germany claimed…

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Fullagar and Yee Make It Double British Delight in Fréjus 

Benjamin Eastman

The French Grand Prix season got underway yesterday in Fréjus with a pair of electric Sprint distance races. The reigning team champions Poissy Triathlon and Saint-Jean-des-Monts Vendée Triathlon arrived looking to set an early marker for their title defences while the race also set the stage for the first clash of 2024 between Olympic medallists Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde. Women’s race Picking up where she left off from last season, Lea Marchal (Issy Triathlon) was the fastest woman in the water, completing the 750m in 10:34. Her teammate, Celia Merle, was…

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McShane and Schofield Win Oceania Super Sprint Champs

Benjamin Eastman

The Oceania season came to a close yesterday with the Continental Championships over the Super Sprint distance. The competition had a similar format to the Lievin Indoor World Cup, albeit in an outdoor form. To start things off, the athletes took on a 150m pool swim (50m) before progressing to a 4km bike on a criterium circuit. A 1km run on the track then rounded off the competition. With Dylan McCullough, Matthew Hauser, Jaz Hedgeland and Ellie Hoitink not starting, Oceania was was guaranteed a new set of continental champions…

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Hayden Wilde Fires Off 5000m Personal Best

Benjamin Eastman

Earlier in the week, Hayden Wilde fired a warning shot ahead of the Paris Olympic Games as he clocked a 5000m personal best. Running on the track in Huelva, Spain, Wilde stopped the clock at 13:23.91. In doing so, he lowered his previous best time of 13:29.47 from 2021 by over 5 seconds. Notably, his new best is not too far away from the Olympic qualifying time of 13:05. For an athlete juggling three sports, it represents quite the turn of speed. Wilde had already demonstrated his form earlier in…

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French Grand Prix Season Kicks Off In Fréjus This Weekend

Benjamin Eastman

The French Grand Prix is back and it will start with a bang. The opening stage of the series takes place in its customary slot in Fréjus this weekend and it will offer the first clash of 2024 between two of the favourites for Olympic gold this summer. The season will then continue in Metz and Bordeaux in June before concluding in September with stops in Quiberon and Saint-Jean-des-Monts. As is the norm in the series, the racing will be a Sprint distance affair. Kicking things off is a one-lap…

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How Do The Olympic Triathlon Universality Places Look?

Benjamin Eastman

At the Paris Olympic Games, two slots in the men’s and women’s triathlon races will be reserved for the Universality pathway. These are allocated by the Tripartite Commission and are open primarily to countries that have traditionally sent small delegations to the Games. To receive a slot, an athlete’s federation must have applied for the berth and the athlete in question needs to make it into the top-180 of the world rankings. The Tripartite Commission will then finalise their consideration of the applications and distribute the slots. Similarly to the…

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Flora Duffy To Make First WTCS Start In 18 Months

Benjamin Eastman

Flora Duffy has been added to the start list for WTCS Yokohama. After uncertainty over her WTCS comeback, the defending Olympic champion will be making her first start in the Series in 18 months. In a shift from previous false dawns in 2023, Duffy was not originally on the start lists for Yokohama. Whereas last year, for example at the Paris Test Event, Duffy entered races and then withdrew, in Yokohama she has been a later addition. Considering that she has been added to the start list less than a…

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Who Had The Best Splits At The Chengdu World Cup?

Benjamin Eastman

Swim Therese Feuersinger was in a league of her own in the swim in Chengdu. She claimed the top split in 19:19 and was long out of sight by the time the next athletes followed her into T1. That Feuersinger led out of the water should be of little surprise; she was the fastest woman in the first discipline at WTCS Sunderland last year. What did surprise, though, was just how far ahead she pulled away from her rivals. Wen Wei was the next woman out of the water in…

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