Category: Analysis

There were a number of exceptional splits at WTCS Abu Dhabi. Only two athletes, though, managed top-10 splits in all three disciplines. That honour went to Beth Potter and Sophie Coldwell, the gold and silver medallists in the women’s race. The Swims We have written about the French men’s strategy for the WTCS this year and the swim splits show that in full force. Vincent Luis and Dorian Coninx battled to take control of the race from the front of the swim. However, they could not quite force a gap.…

There was plenty of data to dig into at WTCS Abu Dhabi. We have a separate post for the splits breakdown from the race, but that only tells half the story. Below, you will find all the graphs and plots you need to analyse what happened at the first WTCS race of the year. Swim The women’s swim distribution really demonstrates just how strong Sophie Coldwell was in the water. The Density of Athletes shows how many athletes exited the water at each interval behind Coldwell. As the line marking…

The first race of the WTCS season saw a number of athletes record their best ever WTCS finishes. In addition, the race also saw three athletes make their first appearances at the WTCS level. The Debutants Jannick Schauffer had a good day at his first WTCS race. He spent much of the race alongside silver medallist Vasco Vilaca. Coming into T2, Schaufler was a part of the main pack and was well-positioned to record a strong finish. He was also quick through transition to get onto the run among the…

In case you haven’t heard, WTCS racing starts tomorrow in Abu Dhabi. Below you will find the information you need for each athlete on the start list. A cheat sheet, if you will. Note that the data shown applies for Sprint races in the 2022 season. That way, we can bring to bear the most recent and pertinent information for the athletes, particularly as WTCS Abu Dhabi will be over the Sprint distance. For every athlete, you will find their average position out of the swim as well as their…

WTCS Abu Dhabi 2023 will take place on a completely different course to the one used at the 2022 WTCS Final. This time round, the athletes will return to the Yas Marina F1 circuit. The swim will mostly be an out and back through Yas Bay. Unlike 2022, there will not be any great advantage to certain pontoon positions. Whereas at the 2022 Final the athletes stood to benefit by positioning themselves on the right of the pontoon to avoid the hypotenuse created by the first buoy, there won’t really…

As with the women’s WTCS, 2022 saw members of the men’s field record splits that were among the best in WTCS history. How fast are the fastest? Some of the splits in the past 13 years have been nothing short of mind-boggling. Olympic distance Alistair Brownlee continues to be the owner of the fastest run split in the WTCS courtesy of his 28:43 in London in 2009. However, in 2022 Alex Yee gave that time an almighty scare with his 28:50 at WTCS Yokohama. But for a series of cramps…

2022 was a remarkable season on several fronts. One thing that really stood out though was the number of women’s running performances that were among the ten fastest in WTCS history. With that in mind, we wanted to present the best running splits that have ever been logged in the WTCS. Of course, triathlon is not fundamentally about times. However, that does not make the splits any less interesting. One thing to clarify too is that not all races are perfectly 10km. Likewise almost all courses are different, with varying…

When we watch the World Triathlon Championship Series, we see the best triathletes in the world go head to head. For a number of junior athletes across the world, watching the WTCS comes with the aspiration of one day joining the ranks of the triathlon elite. As a result, there is an important question to ask. What does it take to make the start list of a WTCS race? Having surveyed a number of the elite selection policies of some of the best countries in the world, this article sheds…

As we wrote earlier today, in the 2022 WTCS only half of the races in the regular season counted towards athletes’ total scores. Of the eight races in the Series, an athlete only had to score at four of them ahead of the Final in Abu Dhabi. With that in mind, at which races did the top-15 athletes in the WTCS standings score their points? We did not include the Abu Dhabi Final in this analysis. As the Series Final, the reason for attendance is in the name and athletes…

WTCS Abu Dhabi may have turned out to to be the best racing of the season, with breakaways, incredible comebacks and world championships that went down to the wire. As seen in the splits in the men’s and women’s races, there is a lot to unpack in how the races unfolded. The Swim The biggest concentration of athletes emerged around 40 seconds behind the swim leader, Mark Devay of Hungary. What is interesting is that after 15 seconds, the density of athletes did not drop below 0.010 until almost a…