A Vintage Zaferes Performance
Any discussion of the racing at the Americas Cup in St. Peters has to start with the women’s victor, Katie Zaferes.
After gaining a lead in the water, Zaferes continued a fine solo performance to build a commanding lead on the bike. In a way it was a case of history repeating itself.
Katie Zaferes essentially deployed the tactics popularised by Flora Duffy to beat Gwen Jorgensen, the very individual against whom Duffy devised the strategy in the first place. As such there was a sense of circularity to Zaferes’ showing.
After a decent showing at WTCS Abu Dhabi and then a silver medal at the Sarasota Americas Cup, Zaferes’ return to the sport after childbirth had been steady. At both prior races, her swim and bike were strong while her running legs were showing signs of returning.
At St. Peters, Zaferes kicked her return into a new gear. It could be said that she has not stamped her authority over a race like that since 2019. At her best, she is one of the few athletes capable of shaping a race at the WTCS level. In many respects St. Peters was a warning shot to the WTCS field that Zaferes is on the upswing and it will not be long before she is back at her top form.
When she hits full stride, potentially either in the summer or autumn, expect further virtuoso performances.
Jorgensen Thwarted By Scheduling?
Let’s start with the good side of Jorgensen’s race. She was strong in the water and emerged third out of the water. Prior to her comeback the swim was the most obvious roadblock standing in Jorgensen’s way. To date, though, she has navigated all of her swims well. Far from being a weakness, her swim has been a point of solidity.
Moreover Jorgensen had another good showing on the bike in the chase pack. Thereafter her run was as strong as everyone has come to expect.
On the day she simply came up against an inspired Zaferes. It happens. Based on a purely performance perspective, it is clear that Jorgensen is getting better with each race. She’s that little bit sharper in the swim and a little bit more assertive on the bike.
The problem is Jorgensen needs points. Fast.
If anything is going to torpedo Jorgensen’s Olympic goal at this point, it is the season schedule. She cannot get into WTCS races without substitutions (a little more on that process here) and right now, with Olympic selection on the line, her American rivals may not want to give up any race slots anyway.
That leaves World Cups with which to score the all-important Olympic points. However the loss of the World Cups in Busselton and Yeongdo will hurt Jorgensen.
Busselton was due to take place at the end of April but now will be an Oceania Cup. Yeongdo has been postponed to the start of August. As such both now fall in the Second Period of Olympic qualification; it would have been far more helpful to Jorgensen had they remained in the First Period before the end of May.
Only the World Cup Huatulco remains in the first half of the calendar year. As a result, Jorgensen will end the First Period with one scoring event (in New Plymouth), leaving her with a mountain to climb in the Second Period to put her high enough in the Olympic rankings to justify selection by Team USA.
The season is heavily back-loaded with World Cups in the autumn, but Jorgensen might not be able to wait that long for points. As it stands, the schedule could be the factor that sways Jorgensen’s renewed Olympic dream.
Aspects Of Motherhood
After the race, one very interesting point that Jorgensen noted was the impact of breast-feeding on her season. More specifically, she noted how, with her first child, stopping breast-feeding resulted in about a month of her hormones being destabilised which severely affected her.
With that in mind, she has learned that she will need to time stopping breast-feeding of her second child to match up with her racing and training goals.
There are plenty of lenses through which to view Jorgensen’s season, from the athletic side to the race to Paris. Her racing as a mother is similarly an intriguing aspect of her return, as it is for Zaferes.
With the new World Triathlon maternity policy more athletes could find themselves in similar shoes so the lessons learned and shared by Jorgensen and Zaferes could be highly pertinent for a number of future triathletes.
It therefore matters for women’s sport to have athletes such as Jorgensen and Zaferes be candid about the changes and challenges and what works or maybe hasn’t worked for them.
Patience Is The Key For Alvarez
Across the race in St. Peters, we did not really learn anything new about Anahi Alvarez Corral. The Mexican athlete is a phenomenal runner, that much was fairly established after her World Cup silver in Valencia and dominant run at the World U23 Championships in Abu Dhabi.
By contrast, her swim and bike are not yet at the same level. In St. Peters, she lost 58 seconds to Zaferes in the water and 36 to Zaferes. Similarly she lost over a minute to Zaferes on the bike and 25 seconds to Jorgensen and her chase group. Earlier this year, she also leaked time during the swim and bike at WTCS Abu Dhabi and the New Plymouth World Cup.
Yet she still mowed through the field with the fastest run split of the day to take the bronze medal. She out-split Zaferes by 40 seconds and out-ran Jorgensen by 19 seconds, highlighting her potential on the run.
However, a DQ took away what was a well-earned bronze. Her disqualification came for not serving a penalty; that itself could be take as a sign of a young athlete still finding their way.
The point to be made about Alvarez is accentuated by the fact she out-ran Jorgensen. There are parallels to be drawn between the two athletes.
The Jorgensen of 2010-2012 was not the all-conquering superstar of 2014-2016. Her run was fantastic but sometimes she could lose a race on the swim or bike. Being fairly new to the sport at the time, that made a lot of sense.
Alvarez is a couple of years younger today than Jorgensen was in 2010 so time is on her side. Obviously it remains to be seen how the sport will evolve, but if she can improve her swim and bike, which should come with patience, she might be able to fully unleash her full potential.
Cook’s Choice Comes Off
The reigning British Junior champion Bethany Cook opted to race in St. Peters over the British performance assessments. That decision paid off as she earned an 8th place finish in a strong Senior field.
Cook was in the top-10 out of the water and made the chase pack behind Zaferes on the bike. In the second discipline, she actually logged the sixth fastest split.
She lost a little time on the run but nonetheless did enough to put herself in the top-8 at the finish line. In doing so, she will have gained a handy bunch of points towards her world ranking and invaluable Senior racing experience, all without having to travel too far from her American university,
2023 will be Cook’s final year as a Junior and she will have her shot to make the British teams for the World and European Junior Championships this summer. If she builds upon her showing in St. Peters, she might be Britain’s best medal chance at both events.
