After winning the bronze medal at WTCS Sunderland, Hayden Wilde has assumed the leadership of the men’s World Triathlon Championships Series.
Sunderland was the penultimate race (and last WTCS event) of the Series before the Final in Pontevedra in September. Next up will be the Paris Olympic Test Event in August, a race that will be worth up to 1000 points. Pontevedra, meanwhile, will offer 1250 points to the winner.
With both Paris and Pontevedra forming large parts of the Olympic selection criteria for multiple countries, the races will likely be the most intense of the season. Having points already on the board could therefore pay off.
On the men’s side, Wilde is well-placed to take a run at the world title, regardless of what happens in Paris.
With 3442 points (rounded to the nearest integer), he holds a lead of almost 500 points over Vasco Vilaca (2952 points).
A win for Alex Yee in Paris would put him 57 points ahead of Wilde. However, that assumes that the New Zealander does not finish inside the top-6 in Paris which would improve upon his WTCS Sunderland score.
A top-7 finish in Paris for Vilaca would offer him more points than his 4th place from Sunderland. In turn, that could help him to consolidate a place on the overall podium. With several challengers lurking below, the young Portuguese athlete may need all the points he can get his hands on.
Leo Bergere has moved up to 3rd in the rankings after claiming the silver medal in Sunderland. Bergere looked in top form at the weekend and will be a major threat in Paris and Pontevedra.
A top-5 finish in Paris would see him replace his 6th place from WTCS Abu Dhabi. More importantly, it would likely see him overtake Vilaca (assuming Vilaca does not finish inside the top-7 in Paris).
Matthew Hauser has dropped to 4th place in the standings. He will need a big result in Paris to expunge his 18th place in Abu Dhabi from his current scores and move back into the overall top-3. Finishing anywhere in the top-20 would improve upon Abu Dhabi. However, if Hauser is to aim for a place on the overall podium, he will realistically need a podium.
A win in Paris would take him onto the heels of Wilde with a potential 3315 points.
Alex Yee sits in 5th place and is almost 1000 points behind Wilde. Having only raced three times in the Series this year, whatever happens in Paris is guaranteed to be added to Yee’s score. A good race will put him in contention for the overall title. Something as simple as a puncture or an ill-timed cramp, though, will end his world title attempt for 2023.
Kristian Blummenfelt and Dorian Coninx follow in 6th and 7th. Like Yee, Coninx only has three scores to his name so his result in Paris will be automatically added to his total. With 4th place finishes from Cagliari and Yokohama, he has performed well over the Olympic distance this season. Another 4th place would put him right behind Vilaca.
A number of men made notable jumps in the rankings following their results in Sunderland.
Pierre Le Corre, the men’s race winner, rose 14 places into 14th. As it happens, he is the only man in the top-40 with only two results to his name. By another quirk of the scoring system, his win in Sunderland (750 points) was worth almost an identical amount to his 5th place in Cagliari (732 points).
Le Corre’s compatriot, Tom Richard, climbed 11 places into 27th after his 7th place in Sunderland. Moreover, Richard Murray’s 6th place saw him rise 26 places into 29th, while Henri Schoeman climbed 6 places into 18th
The best British performer in Sunderland, Barclay Izzard, made a big jump of 18 places to move into 31st. To out-do Izzard in terms of places gained, Emil Holm moved up by 19 places to take 37th.
Simon Westermann snuck into the top-50 after his 8 place gain left him in 50th. Although he did not make it into the top-50, Ricardo Batista’s 10th place saw him rise 59 places into 52nd.
Meanwhile, there was no change in leadership in the women’s Series.
Beth Potter remains at the top of the table with 2987 points (rounded). However, her lead has thinned dramatically. After winning a second race (and joining Potter as the only woman with two WTCS wins in 2023), Cassandre Beaugrand has moved up 4 places into 2nd. She now sits 63 points behind the Scot.
Both Potter and Beaugrand are carrying a 6th place finish among their scores. That being said, Potter’s 6th place from Cagliari is worth more points than Beaugrand’s 6th place from Abu Dhabi.
In Paris, then, if Beaugrand finishes inside the top-8, she will improve her points by enough to overtake Potter. Potter will need to finish in the top-5 to improve her Cagliari score. Should both finish in the top-5, the athlete that crosses the line first will head to Pontevedra as the Series leader.
Taylor Spivey has slipped a place into 3rd and still has 2837 points. However, Emma Lombardi is closing in on her.
Lombardi’s 2nd place in Sunderland helped her to gain 4 places in the standings and, with 2589 points, she is within striking distance of Spivey. Spivey finished 3rd in Cagliari and 4th in Yokohama, so has proven herself over the Olympic distance this year, yet Lombardi finished 2nd in Cagliari and may have the upper hand racing on French soil in Paris.
Summer Rappaport has dropped 2 places to 5th after not racing in Sunderland while Georgia Taylor-Brown has also dropped 2 places to 6th. With her calf injury, it is unlikely that Taylor-Brown will race again in the Series this year.
Like Yee and Coninx in the men’s Series, Sophie Coldwell only has three results to her name and sits in 8th place. A win in Paris would put her at the top of the standings by exactly 1 point (assuming Potter fails to record a top-5 finish).
As the only Olympic distance WTCS winner of 2023 starting, Coldwell will fancy her chances of making a late charge up the rankings.
Further down the leaderboard, Nicole Van Der Kaay climbed 6 places to break into the top-10 after her 8th place in Sunderland. Leonie Periault and Annika Koch also gained 11 places after finishing 4th and 3rd, respectively. The former now sits in 11th overall while the latter has moved up to 13th.
Like Periault and Koch, Rachel Klamer and Emma Jackson gained 11 places in the rankings after Sunderland. They now sit in 25th and 42nd.
Marlene Gomez-Göggel matched her personal best WTCS finish of 5th in Sunderland and in doing so climbed 6 places into 15th. Her improvement in the rankings has sharpened one of the most interesting sub-plots of the Series.
Any German that does not qualify for the Olympic team in Paris or Pontevedra (should slots still remain) can book their place by being the best finisher inside the overall WTCS top-12 this year.
At this moment in time, Koch is in 13th, Lisa Tertsch is in 14th, Gomez-Göggel is in 15th, Nina Eim is in 16th and Laura Lindemann is in 18th. Any of those five could make the jump into the top-12. Although, it would follow that to make the jump, they would need a top-8 finish in one of the remaining two races which would earn a German Olympic place anyway.
After a 13th place in Sunderland, Erica Ackerlund rose 8 places into 27th overall. Jolien Vermeylen also gained 6 places to move into 31st.
When it comes to new faces in the top-50, Noelia Juan nudged inside by moving up 4 places into 47th. The only new entrant either the men’s or women’s standings to break into the top-50, though, was Julie Derron.
The Swiss athlete finished 7th in Sunderland in her first WTCS race of the season which was enough to vault her into 45th overall.
