Category: Analysis

How Do The WTCS Rankings Look After Sunderland?

Benjamin Eastman

After winning the bronze medal at WTCS Sunderland, Hayden Wilde has assumed the leadership of the men’s World Triathlon Championships Series. Sunderland was the penultimate race (and last WTCS event) of the Series before the Final in Pontevedra in September. Next up will be the Paris Olympic Test Event in August, a race that will be worth up to 1000 points. Pontevedra, meanwhile, will offer 1250 points to the winner. With both Paris and Pontevedra forming large parts of the Olympic selection criteria for multiple countries, the races will likely…

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The Debuts and Personal Bests at WTCS Sunderland 2023

Benjamin Eastman

The Debuts Two months after officially changing his sporting nationality to British, Max Stapley made his WTCS debut. He therefore had the opportunity to make his first start at a home event and make the most of the domestic support. Stapley swam well and managed to make it into the breakaway on the bike. From there, he pulled several turns and was regularly towards the front of the pack. His efforts on the bike told a little as he drifted to 31st over the course of the run. Nevertheless, he…

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The Start List Cheat Sheets For WTCS Sunderland 2023

Benjamin Eastman

Notwithstanding that the Paris Olympic Test Event can count towards an athlete’s WTCS score, Sunderland will be the final race of the regular season in the Series. It will therefore represent the last Sprint event at the WTCS level in 2023. In the cheat sheets below, we have pulled together the data for the athletes starting at Sprint WTCS races in 2022 and 2023. For every athlete, you will find their average position out of the water as well as their average time behind the leader in the swim. The same…

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What You Need To Know About The WTCS Sunderland Course

Benjamin Eastman

Sunderland will make its bow in the WTCS this weekend. With a new location comes a new course. The Sprint distance event will involve a sea swim of 750m followed by a slightly longer than normal 21.3km on the bike. A 5km run consisting of two laps will then wrap up the race. You can view the map of the course below. The first thing to note about the swim is that it is almost guaranteed to involve the wetsuits given that the local sea temperature usually peaks between 14…

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Do British Triathletes Perform Better In The UK Than Elsewhere?

Benjamin Eastman

Like Germany, Britain has been a fixture on the WTCS circuit. London hosted a WTCS stop between 2009 and 2015 (with the exception of 2012 when preparations for the Olympic Games prevented it). Thereafter, the event moved to Leeds between 2016 and 2022 (again, with the exception of 2020 when the Series was cancelled). Plenty of data therefore exists with which the performances of the British team can be assessed. As the season shifts from Hamburg to Sunderland, we can ask the same question of British athletes that we did…

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Do German Athletes Perform Better At WTCS Hamburg?

Benjamin Eastman

Among the litany of impressive results at WTCS Hamburg, one string of finishes stood out. Germany put three athletes into the top-5 of the women’s race as Laura Lindemann won the bronze medal, Annika Koch finished 4th and Marlene Gomez-Göggel took 5th place. It was a remarkable display in front of a roaring home crowd. In total seven German women made it into the final in Hamburg, putting all of them into the top-30. Likewise, five of the German men’s team made the final and claimed spots in the top-30.…

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The Deep Dive Into The Hamburg World Mixed Team Relay Champs

Benjamin Eastman

There are few opportunities to race in the Mixed Team Relay at the highest level. For many, every event essentially becomes an audition to secure a spot on the team at major events. In Hamburg, several athletes found themselves in that position. Beth Potter raced on the British relay for the first time (although she had previously raced on the Scottish relay at the Commonwealth Games). Annika Koch and Simon Henseleit also earned chances to race on the German team after logging personal best WTCS finishes in the individual event.…

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Who Had The Best Splits At WTCS Hamburg 2023?

Benjamin Eastman

With qualifiers, heats and multiple rounds in the final, WTCS Hamburg had a smorgasbord of splits to survey. Across two days of racing, the athletes were often separated by mere seconds. An improvement of 1 or 2 seconds, then, had the potential to cause major ramifications, whether through consigning an athlete to the repechages, putting them into the final or even determining a medal. Moreover, the tactical nature of the competition meant that when an athlete deployed their best split was often as important as how fast it was. As…

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The 2023 World Junior Champs Statistical Breakdown

Benjamin Eastman

As a final word on the 2023 World Junior Championships, in this article we will dive into the stats and data that came out of the racing. Looking back on Ilona Hadhoum’s win in the women’s race, which came on the back of field-leading swim and run splits, and Joao Nuno Batista joining his brother in becoming the World Junior champion, there were several key moments that stood out. Read on below, then, to find where the significant moments arose. Swim The swim is an obvious place to start. Ilona…

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All the Debuts and Personal Bests From WTCS Hamburg 2023

Benjamin Eastman

Debuts Selina Klamt logged the best performance of the female debutants in Hamburg. She was the only woman making her first start to earn a spot in the final after qualifying through the repechage. In the final, she enjoyed a good swim and made it to the front pack of nineteen women. At that stage, she seemed to be in a perfect position to secure a place in the second round. However, the intensity of the race ultimately told and she slipped back into the chase group. In the end,…

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The Splits Breakdown Of The 2023 World Junior Champs

Benjamin Eastman

Swim The women’s swim was all about Ilona Hadhoum. The newly-crowned World Junior champion led the way with a fantastic split of 9:51. In doing so, she established a commanding lead set herself up perfectly for the rest of the race. The next closest athlete was Tabea Huys of Austra in a time of 10:11. Having led out the swim at the European Cup in Kitzbühel, Huys’ class in the water was no surprise. However, she did not quite have the answer to Hadhoum’s pace in Hamburg. Margareta Vrablova was…

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No Fighting: The Lessons Of The WTCS Hamburg Course

Benjamin Eastman

As noted in the cheat sheets for WTCS Hamburg, the racing will take place over a Super Sprint distance as opposed to the more traditional Sprint course. On what was already a tight route on narrow streets, there will be several precarious spots. The biggest talking point is the swim. Hamburg is notorious for what happens under the bridge during the first discipline. Under the cover of darkness, there is plenty of contact, some of it unintentional, some of it not. With the athletes due to spend around a quarter…

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The Start List Cheat Sheets For WTCS Hamburg 2023

Benjamin Eastman

WTCS Hamburg presents a unique challenge in 2023. Instead of the usual Sprint distance fare, the event will be contested over a multi-round Super Sprint format. On Friday, there will be two men’s qualifiers and two women’s qualifiers which will run over the Super Sprint distance. The ten best finishers in each qualifier will make it to the final on Saturday. Those that do not qualify will then compete in a repechage (also a Super Sprint) on Friday evening. The ten best finishers in the repechage will then be added…

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The Stats and Splits Breakdown of the Tiszy World Cup 2023

Benjamin Eastman

On its long-awaited return to the World Cup circuit, the finals in Tiszaujvaros had a bit of everything. In the semi-finals, the swim had proven to be decisive and seemed to indicate that the first discipline would go a long way in shaping the final. You can take a look at the breakdown and race developments of the semi-finals here. To varying degrees, that proved to be the case in the men’s and women’s races. In the former, the swim played a major role in determining the medallists. Meanwhile, in…

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What Are The Lessons From The Tiszy World Cup Heats?

Benjamin Eastman

Between the semi-finals and the finals of the Tiszaujvaros World Cup, there will be plenty of changes to the course. The bike will be different; it will consist of eight 2.5km laps in the final instead of two 10km laps. Likewise, the run will be held over four laps instead of three. However, the swim will remain the same. That consistency is significant. If there is one lesson to take from the semi-finals, it is that the swim will be hugely important in the final. Tiszaujvaros is unlike practically any…

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