The World Cup racing will be coming thick and fast in October. After events in Tangier and Rome, Chengdu will host the third stop of the month.
Chengdu will offer an Olympic distance course and will be the second Chinese World Cup of the year following the event in Weihai. The race has a twist, though, as it falls on the same weekend as the Brasilia World Cup. Plenty of athletes will therefore have to choose between the two.
From the start lists, it is clear that the split has affected attendance in both Chengdu and Brasilia. Nevertheless, plenty of talented athletes are due to race.
Who’s there?
Lasse Nygaard Priester will look to bump up the bronze medal he won at the Weihai World Cup into a gold medal. Similarly, Jonas Schomburg will see if he can collect another World Cup medal after earning a bronze in Karlovy Vary. Throw in Valentin Wernz, who claimed bronze at the Yeongdo World Cup, and the German team is replete with medallists.
With Tim Hellwig and Johannes Vogel also due to start, Germany thus have one of the strongest teams in Chengdu.
That is not to say that they will have the men’s race all their own way.
Takumi Hojo, the winner in Yeongdo, will present a major threat. His teammates, Aoba Yasumatsu, Genta Uchida, Ren Sato and Makoto Odakura, are also major dangers.
Márk Dévay is fresh off of maiden World Cup medal in Karlovy Vary and will attempt to carry his form forward. If he manages to stimulate another breakaway, he could land on the podium. Equally, his compatriots, Bence Bicsák and Gábor Faldum, will be primed to strike should the main pack stay together.
Alex Yee and Jonathan Brownlee are supposedly racing for Britain, although this could be a case of the boy that cried wolf. One day, they will actually start World Cups and catch everyone out but it seems unlikely that they will in Chengdu. Look for both to be substituted or at the very least withdraw.
Britain also have Samuel Dickinson, Hamish Reilly and Jack Willis on the start list, each of whom is capable of popping off with a big showing.
Mexico will have the evergreen Irving Perez race in addition to World Cup medallist Aram Michell Peñaflor Moysen. Nicolas Provert Vargas, Fabian Villanueva Moehl and Jesus Gildardo Espiritu then complete the rest of the team.
The Chengdu-Brasilia weekend will be a real display of Mexico’s depth as they have a lot of athletes due to race across the two World Cups.
Max Studer and Fabian Meeusen will represent Switzerland in Chendgu. Dylan McCullough and Saxon Morgan will start for New Zealand while Luke Willian and Luke Bate are pencilled in for Australia.
Darr Smith, Ka’eo Kruse and Griff Morgan will race for America and Liam Donnelly, Clayton Hutchins and Martin Sobey will start for Canada.
On a more local note, Oscar Coggins, Tzt To Wong and Jason Tai Long Ng will race for Hong Kong.
Meanwhile, the Australian women’s team will back themselves in Chengdu. Natalie Van Coevorden, Emma Jackson and Ellie Hoitink are all due to start and each could produce a big performance.
Anahi Alvarez Corral, the winner of the Huatulco World Cup, is pound-for-pound the best runner in the field. As has been the case all season, the challenge for her will be to limit any losses in the swim and on the bike.
Cecilia Perez and Sofia Rodriguez Moreno complete the Mexican women’s team.
If Alvarez is the best runner starting, Bianca Seregni is the best swimmer. The Italian athlete will look to claim a second gold medal in China after her World Cup win in Weihai in August. Ilaria Zane will be racing alongside her for Italy.
The Japanese team will be made up by Niina Kishimoto, Sarika Nakayama, Jure Ide, Yuka Sato and Hiraku Fukuoka.
Julie Derron will be racing after narrowly missing the podium in Karlovy Vary. She will use the trip as a training camp with her coach, Brett Sutton, before tackling the subsequent World Cups. Alanis Siffert forms the second half of the two-woman Swiss team.
A lot of athletes will be without teammates in Chengdu. Whereas Germany will be sending five men, Lena Meißner is the only woman due to start.
The list of athletes in the same boat as Meißner is extensive. Claire Michel, Lisa Perterer, Jeanne Lehair, Eva Goodisson, Erica Ackerlund, Tereza Zimovjanova, Sara Guerreo Manso and Bailee Brown are just some of the athletes to fly their flags alone.
Main talking points
The home team
China will look to impress at their second home World Cup of 2023. Anqi Huang has lit up multiple Asia Cup races this season and may be the team’s best hope at a medal.
The Chinese women’s team, though, is very well-balanced. Yifan Yang is a classy swimmer; she is probably the fastest in the water after Seregni. Xinyu Lin is then particularly strong on two wheels.
Keep an eye out, too, for Siyi Zhang. The Junior had an impressive day at the World Junior Championships where she finished 8th.
Siyu Wang is the fifth and final woman on the start list.
The Chinese men’s team is not quite as advanced as the women’s. Nevertheless, in Junjie Fan they have an athlete more than capable of making a dent at the head of the field. Fan made his WTCS debut earlier in the season and that experience should stand him in good stead.
Mingxu Li, Yunfeng Teng and Yunxiang Ma comprise the rest of the home team.
Garabedian’s second first World Cup
Earlier in the year, Margot Garabedian completed her switch of sporting nationality from France to Cambodia. Since then, she has gone on to make her WTCS debut.
As of yet, though, she has not raced at a World Cup for her new country. That will change in Chengdu.
Under the French colours, Garabedian finished 7th at the Cape Town World Cup in 2017 and so has enjoyed success at the level before. Her last World Cup came in Santo Domingo in 2019. As such, it has been quite some time since she has graced the level.
Her form in the French Grand Prix has been very encouraging this season and she could produce a noteworthy showing at her second first World Cup.
The Asian swing
Chengdu marks the start of the Asian swing of World Cups. Over the subsequent weekends, there will be races in Tongyeong and then in Miyazaki. Some athletes, such as Derron, will look to maximise the three valuable World Cup races.
Not only will important prize money be on offer but the races could potentially do a lot of good for many athletes’ rankings.
A big autumn in China, South Korea and Japan could set an athlete up for a big 2024 by improving their ranking and helping them get onto WTCS start lists with greater comfort.
While Chengdu might be the end of the season for some, then, it could be the start of another chapter for others.
You can view the full start lists here.
