The second World Cup of the season is drawing onto the horizon. Like the first stop of the year in Napier, the racing will take place in a new location as Hong Kong hosts its first event at the world level.
Having successfully welcomed Asia Cup races beforehand, the World Cup will no doubt offer a similarly smooth experience. Another Sprint distance outing will be on offer and, with the race falling a smidge over two months before the end of the Olympic qualification window, there will be invaluable ranking points on the line.
Who’s there?
Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice… well, you know how the saying goes.
We have already been burned by some of the World Triathlon big hitters this season as the likes of Alex Yee and Beth Potter were entered as place-holders for the Napier World Cup and then withdrew. After learning our lesson in the 2023 season (Yee et al do not race World Cups except on rare occasions), we were lulled into falsehood when they appeared on the Napier start list. (New Year, new Yee?)
At first, they appeared on the Hong Kong start list (as did Hayden Wilde). This time, though, saner heads have prevailed and Yee, Wilde, Potter and Georgia Taylor-Brown have all already been removed.
Without their talisman, the British men’s team will consist of Ben Dijkstra, Max Stapley and Daniel Dixon. Similarly, without Wilde, the New Zealand men will be represented by Janus Staufenberg and Saxon Morgan.
Among the most eye-catching entrants are the American team. World Cup winner Matthew McElroy heads up a squad containing Darr Smith and Seth Rider. Notably, Kevin McDowell is also back after missing large swathes of 2023.
Max Studer, Sylvain Fridelance and Adrien Briffod will be racing for Swizterland while Kenji Nener, Ren Sato, Jumpei Furuya, Takumi Hojo and Aoba Yasumatsu will compete for Japan.
A talented Mexican trio of Aram Michell Peñaflor Moysen, Crisanto Grajales and Rodrigo Gonzalez will be racing. Peñaflor won the joint-most World Cup medals of any man last season while Grajales claimed gold at the Weihai World Cup.
Jacob Birtwhistle and Luke Willian will be starting for Australia, as will Kurt Wesley who gets a shot at the world stage after some promising Continental Cup form in 2023.
Italy and Hungary will each be represented by three men apiece. The former will sed Alessio Crociani, Michele Sarzilla and Nicola Azzano to Hong Kong while the latter will hunt for medals through Bence Bicsák, Gábor Faldum and Márk Dévay.
An Austrian quartet of Alois Knabl, Leon Pauger, Tjebbe Kaindl and Martin Demuth will also be racing.
Among those to stand as the only male entrants for their countries are Ricardo Batista, Felix Duchampt, Casper Stornes, Badr Siwane, Gregor Payet, Emil Holm and Alberto Gonzalez Garcia.
Meanwhile, on the women’s side, the absence of the world champion, Potter, has been made up for with the addition of the 2018 world champion, Vicky Holland. Holland will race for Britain alongside Sophie Alden, Olivia Mathias and Sian Rainsley.
Another world champion – in fact Holland’s successor – will start as Katie Zaferes leads an American team that also contains Erica Ackerlund and Gina Sereno.
Among the largest contingents are the Spanish, Japanese and Austrian teams. Heading up the Spanish charge will be Miriam Casillas Garcia. The World Cup medallist will be joined by Cecilia Santamaria Surroca, Marta Pintanel Raymundo and Sara Guerrero Manso. Niina Kishimoto then leads a fairly young Japanese team. Her compatriots on the start list include Hiraku Fukoaka, Sarika Nakayama, Miyu Sakai and Yuka Sato.
Austria likewise bring considerable depth with Julia Hauser, Lisa Perterer, Tanja Stroschneider and Sara Vilic all starting.
Emma Jeffcoat and Emma Jackson will form an Australian double-punch in Hong Kong while Slovakia will be represented by Ivana Kuriackova, Zuzana Michalickova and Romana Gajdošová.
Several other countries are represented by two women, including Switzerland (Julie Derron and Alissa Konig), Portugal (Melanie Santos and Maria Tomé), New Zealand (Ainsley Thorpe and Olivia Thornbury) and Italy (Alice Betto and Ilaria Zane).
Tilda Månsson, Valerie Barthelemy, Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto, Anne Holm and Barbara De Koning are some of the athletes due to be the only women from their country racing.
Main talking points
Nener’s World Cup shot
The Asian Games champion and WTCS stalwart is not a frequent flyer on the World Cup circuit. Nevertheless, he dabbled at the level at the end of 2023 as he finished 13th at the Miyazaki World Cup.
Nener has a best World Cup finish of 7th (achieved previously in Mooloolaba and Tongyeong). Since then, though, he has matured into a consistent WTCS player. Indeed, he has three WTCS top-10 finishes to his name, including two from the 2023 season. As such, a best result on the World Cup front may be in the offing.
If he brings his dominant Asian Games form to bear, perhaps we will see a maiden world level medal for the Japanese star.
Asian New Flag clash
Hong Kong will see a significant clash in both the men’s and women’s races as the Asian New Flag slots at the Olympic Games are put on the line.
In the men’s race, Ayan Beisenbayev (KAZ) will be up against home favourite Jason Tai Long Ng. The two men are locked in an extremely tight race to take the New Flag slot and the balance of power has shifted between them on numerous occasions. On big World Cup score could create a buffer offer the other as the race to Paris enters its final stages.
Beisenbayev has already started his season with a win at the Troutbeck African Cup. As a result, it may be Ng’s turn to respond.
Moreover, in the women’s race, Bailee Brown (HKG) will try to hunt down Ekaterina Shabalina (KAZ) in the New Flag race. Ranked 50th in the world, Shabalina has a healthy lead but Brown is rising rapidly and will have home support behind her. One big race could turn the entire conversation on its head.
Make sure to look out for the sub-plot of the Hong Kong-Kazakhstan battle when the World Cup arrives.
Slupek steps up
Roskana Slupek is on a golden run. The Polish athlete has just completed a hat-trick of Continental Cup wins, including most recently at the Americas Cup in La Guaira. Now she will get her bite at the World Cup.
For the past few months, everything Slupek has touched on a racing front has turned to gold. The World Cup, however, will offer a far sterner challenge than that which she has recently faced.
With momentum behind her, though, she will carry invaluable self-belief into Hong Kong and could be a dark hose for a high finish.
Rainsley’s return
After experiencing a frustrating 2023 in which injury sidelined her to the point that she lost her place in the British squad, Sian Riansley will make her bow for 2024 and will seek to remind a few people of just how good she can be.
The British athlete has not raced internationally since the European Games last summer. Indeed, she made only three individual international starts last year. Not to be forgotten, though, is the face that Rainsley has twice finished in the top-8 at WTCS races and is a European Championships bronze medallist.
Given a run of good health and a chance to sharpen herself through racing once more, she will no doubt re-establish herself as one of Britain’s brightest triathlon prospects.
View the full start lists here.
