It happened again.
No one quite knows how it happened, but it happened again.
The 2022 WTCS season had provided the most compelling finale of recent memory. Somehow, the 2023 Final in Pontevedra matched it.
Alex Yee arrived as the Series leader with a slim advantage over Hayden Wilde. Having won five of the legs of the WTCS between them in 2023, the pair were the clear favourites for the world title. Moreover, they held a healthy advantage over Vasco Vilaca, the next closest chaser, as well as the French pair of Leo Bergere, the defending world champion, and Dorian Coninx.
From the off, it was clear there was something in the water. That something was Matthew Hauser as the Australian set a blistering pace.
At the end of the first of the two swim laps, Jonas Schomburg and Pierre Le Corre emerged on his feet but many men struggled. Yee and Wilde exited together, 24 seconds down and outside the top-40.
On the second lap, Hauser did not relent. He took the bull by the horns and led the way in a time of 17:57. Schomburg and Le Corre were the next men out, 3 seconds down.
Then the world title conversation became interesting.
Yee and Wilde were in 49th and 50th place out of the water, the best part of 50 seconds down. Meanwhile, Coninx was in 6th, 6 seconds down, while Bergere had lost 9 seconds. Vilaca was out in 15th after losing 17 seconds to Hauser.
To compound his aquatic misery, Wilde was hit with a penalty for leaving equipment out of his box. He would therefore have 15 seconds to serve in the penalty box later in the race.
A fourteen man front pack congregated around Hauser early on in the bike. By the end of the first of the eight laps, they led by 14 seconds to a chase group of twelve.
The third pack on the road contained Wilde and Kristian Blummenfelt and were 25 seconds back. Most notably, Yee failed to make the third pack. Instead, he languished in the fourth and final group, 55 seconds down.
With Vilaca, Bergere and Coninx all in the front pack, the world title was up for grabs in ways no one had quite dared to imagine. Far from memories of 2022 returning, a loud and extravagant remix was being blared at full volume.
The front pack swelled to twenty-four men as the chase pack bridged. Still, though, the Wilde group were stranded with a 25 second deficit.
On the third lap, Ricardo Batista launched an attack off the front to keep the leaders honest. Marten Van Riel was the next man to showcase his strength at the head of the race.
By the midpoint of the bike, the leaders had an advantage of 36 seconds over the Wilde group. Blummenfelt and Wilde hit the front to try to limit the damage but their efforts were in vain. Throughout it all, Yee had fallen back further and sat a gloomy 1:24 down.
All of Vilaca, Bergere and Coninx seemed primed to take the world title but they had to cling to their laurels. Plenty of threats gathered around them in the leading group.
Morgan Pearson was fresh off a crushing victory at the Karlovy Vary World Cup while Hauser and Le Corre had claimed WTCS wins earlier in the summer. Lasse Lührs was also quietly moving into the mix.
News then broke that Miguel Hidalgo had been disqualified from the front group for not following the bike course. It was the same punishment as that meted out to Esteban Basanta Fouz in the men’s World U23 Championships earlier in the day. Hidalgo, though, continued his efforts with the leaders and the second half of the bike was navigated with minimal drama.
Hauser was the first out of T2 and led Bergere and Vilaca onto the run. As he arrived into transition, Wilde’s deficit stood at 48 seconds.
With the early lead, Hauser issued a callback to his triumph in Montreal in June. That day, he had been the fastest swimmer and runner. The omens in Pontevedra looked like a repeat could have been on the cards.
Csongor Lehmann was the first to challenge the Australian. The World U23 champion from 2021 moved onto Hauser’s shoulder and settled into his groove. With the first lap down, Hauser and Lehmann led but sixteen further men lurked within 4 seconds of them. Then Pearson took off.
The American stormed into the lead, channelling his Karlovy Vary form. Further behind, Wilde served his penalty after the first lap. However in his angst to get moving he left too early and was forced to stop to serve the final few seconds.
At the front, Pearson sought to upgrade his silver medal from the 2022 Final to gold as he tore around the second lap. Bergere breezed to the front of the chasers but Hauser began to fall back.
Vilaca, too, began to fall away from the front.
Midway through the run, the race and the world standings were in a state of bamboozlement. Pearson led by 6 seconds from Hellwig, Le Corre, Bergere, Coninx and Lührs. Lehmann and Hidalgo followed but the Brazilian’s disqualification promised to upset proceedings further.
Having glimpsed a chance to claim the world title, Vilaca had fallen 12 seconds behind and was leaking more time.
Then it was Le Corre’s turn to strike. The French athlete took control of the chase and really ramped up the intensity. He soon caught and then dropped Pearson to create a lead quintet containing three French men and two Germans.
Yet something was brewing.
After all of his travails, Wilde rallied once more. Unable to admit defeat in even the most dire of scenarios, the intrepid New Zealander picked off athletes ahead and closed in on the top-10.
With a lap to go, the Series leader, Yee, was over 2 minutes down and out of contention. Wilde stood 44 seconds back and passed Vilaca who had popped. At the front, Bergere and Coninx remained within the front quintet, putting the French pair on a collision course with Wilde for the world title.
Over the final lap, Hellwig began to assert himself and launched an attack of his own. His rivals were equal to it but in the final kilometre Lührs cracked.
At the same time, Wilde had seized 10th place and was gaining. With Hidalgo ahead and still disqualified, the state of play remained in flux. Bergere or Coninx needed a podium, perhaps more, if they were to win. Their teammate, Le Corre, needed a podium too for his Olympic aspirations. Amid all the uncertainty, Hellwig looked strong. And Wilde was closing.
Hellwig tried to make his move from further out than expected and put Bergere on the back foot.
Coninx and Le Corre had his measure, though, and drew alongside. In the final straight, the men were three abreast and hared for the line. It was Coninx that had the final burst of energy and he crossed the line to claim his third WTCS victory.
Hellwig took 2nd place while Le Corre earned 3rd. Bergere followed in 4th, ahead of Lührs and Hidaglo. With Hidalgo’s disqualification, Lehmann was bumped up to 6th place. Hauser and Tyler Mislawchuk followed and then there was Wilde.
His 9th place was not enough and Coninx was officially the world champion. Like Bergere 12 months before, his win was his only victory of the season but it came at the perfect moment. Coninx had been a World Junior champion and a World U23 champion. Now he was on top of the world.
It would be easy to say that Pontevedra had been the wildest WTCS race of recent memory. Given the events of 2022, that would not strictly be true. Nevertheless, once the dust had settled and the heart rates had come down, everyone could reflect of another truly mad, truly spectacular, ending to the 2023 season.
You can view the full results here.
