Although Beth Potter emerged as the winner at the Paris Olympic Test Event, it was actually Cassandre Beaugrand that assumed the leadership of the women’s WTCS standings.
The French athlete has 3341 points while the Brit has 3309 points. Whoever crosses the line first at the WTCS Final in Pontevedra, then, will most likely come away with the world title.
Of the two leading women, Beaugrand has the better previous WTCS Final finish. She achieved a 10th place last season in Abu Dhabi. Meanwhile, Potter’s best effort in a Final is the 18th she managed in Edmonton in 2021.
On the surface, the history of Beaugrand and Potter at previous Finals would give some hope to those that chase them. Their form this season, however, provides a powerful argument to the contrary.
Beaugrand and Potter have, on average, been the fastest and second fastest runners in the women’s Series, respectively.
When it comes to the top 10km splits, Beaugrand ran a time of 32:25 in Cagliari. Potter dropped a 32:41 split at the same race. Then, at the Paris Test Event, Potter flipped the narrative. She clocked 32:57 to Beaugrand’s 33:07 to take the leading split.
Paris was actually Beaugrand’s first WTCS race this season in which she had not been the fastest runner.
To go with their magnificent running, both have been strong in the other two disciplines. Beaugrand has emerged in 6th place from the swim across the board. Potter has also been the tenth fastest cyclist at her races.
Overall, then, Beaugrand has been the slightly better swimmer, Potter the slightly better cyclist and barely anything has separated them on the run.
The same closeness can be seen in their last five WTCS clashes .
In Paris, Potter won and Beaugrand took the silver medal. The situation was reversed at their previous meeting in Hamburg. Before that, Beaugrand finished 4th in Cagliari to Potter’s 6th.
At the start of the season, Potter won in Abu Dhabi while Beaugrand finished 6th. Moreover, in their fifth head-to-head, the WTCS Final in 2022, Beaugrand finished 10th while Potter took 32nd place.
In total, that puts Beaugrand up by three races to two. However, it is clear that the two have been finely poised for quite some time.
Of course, someone like Emma Lombardi (who sits on 2946 points) could play spoiler and swoop in to snatch the title. Going into the race, though, it feels like one of Potter or Beaugrand will win. Yet, when it comes to determining which of the two will come out on top, it is too close to call.
