Canadian WTCS athlete Emy Legault took on the Course et marche populaires de LaSalle this past Sunday.
Racing over the 5km, Legault ran a time of 16:26. That made her the first woman home and 11th fastest athlete in total. Moreover she was a mere 2 seconds away from the top-10.
As a fun aside, Legault is actually the course record holder in the women’s 1km race. Back in 2007, she ran a time of 3:33.5
In addition, she technically broke the course record in the 5km with her performance at the weekend. Hitherto, the fastest women’s time was a 16:55.10 which Legault comprehensively beat.
Thus far on the triathlon front, Legault has only raced WTCS Abu Dhabi in 2023. A finish of 47th was not quite the result she would have been looking for, particularly after finishing her 2022 with a 22nd place at the WTCS Final.
Abu Dhabi, though, was early in the season and came after a tight turnaround from last year’s Final. As such, it would be unwise to read too much into Legault’s performance earlier this month.
She currently sits 22nd in the individual Olympic qualification rankings and is on track to make her Olympic debut in Paris next year.
In the more immediate term, Legault’s 5km indicates that her speed is progressing well this year. With time yet to get even faster before the next round of WTCS racing, she will be an athlete to keep tabs on.
To date her best WTCS finish is her 10th place from Hamburg last year. That came after a maiden World Cup medal (a silver in Huatulco) and a 12th place in Montreal. 2022, then, was a major step forward in Legault’s career.
In June of this year, Montreal will kick off a run of three consecutive shorter WTCS races and that might be the perfect window for Legault to get even closer to a first WTCS medal.
