We should have known better. After his silver medal at WTCS Abu Dhabi, Vasco Vilaca clearly had a hot hand and once the the triathlon gods saw that we had neglected to include him in our men’s preview for WTCS Yokohama the chain of events had been set.
By winning the bronze medal in Yokohama, Vasco Vilaca has taken over the lead of the men’s Series.
With 1549 points, he is over 200 points clear of the next athlete (Dorian Coninx). Of course it is early days. Alex Yee only has one race under his belt, as does Manoel Messias. After his mishap with his wheel in Abu Dhabi, Hayden Wilde essentially also only has one score to his name. Over the course of the season, the gap to Vilaca will close.
Yet in the first two races of the season Vilaca has shown that he is more than up for the challenge of competing for this year’s world title.
To start with, it should be noted that his 3rd place today was a major improvement on his career thus far. In 2022, his best WTCS finish over the Olympic distance was a 7th place (also in Yokohama). Aside from that, though, he had never broken into the top-10.
Finishes of 13th came at WTCS Bermuda and at the European Championships in Munich but otherwise he had not threatened the podium over the longer race in a meaningful way.
That is not to say he had not shown any glimmers of hope over the longer race. He finished 4th at the 2019 World U23 Championships and 2nd at the Karlovy Vary World Cup in 2020. Rather, his Sprint distance achievements outweighed those of his over the Olympic distance. Medals at the single day World Championships in Hamburg in 2020 and Abu Dhabi this year were testament to that. Moreover he had enjoyed far better results in European Cups over the Sprint distance than the longer.
With his medal in Yokohama, Vilaca has confirmed himself as a legitimate threat over the Olympic distance. Going forward, he will be justifiably in the medal conversation at every race this year, not least given that he is two from two so far.
Then there is how he won his medal.
Vilaca was 14th out of the water and 11 seconds down on swim leader Márk Dévay. As a swimmer, he is deceptively strong and seems to have a knack for putting himself in the front group. At WTCS Bermuda last year, he did the same thing as he made the breakaway.
Vilaca’s split on the bike was then nothing special in and of itself. However that belies the way he rode. He was often at the front and made his presence known in sharp bursts. At no point was he hanging on for dear life. In addition he rode with a real sense of maturity.
When an athlete is as strong as the likes of Wilde, Bergere and Blummenfelt, it makes sense to sit on the front and try to force moves. Sometimes, though, that does not pay off. Vilaca is of a similar ability to that trio on the bike in short distance racing, albeit with a little room to develop given his age.
The difference is he was more willing to sit in the pack and bide his time. Wilde and Blummenfelt are often very prominent at the front of groups whereas Vilaca demonstrated a little more control.
Maybe there is a different pressure or level of expectation on the likes of Wilde. It is not like his pushes on the bike hurt his run split either. Vilaca, though, rode smart and showed that he could be a big part of the front pack without risking his legs excessively.
And then there is the most significant point. Vilaca logged the fastest run split of the day.
Yes, Wilde slowed up dramatically at the end to celebrate and could have run faster. Nonetheless, Vilaca’s 29:24 split was the best in the field and demonstrated how he is a threat across all three disciplines.
He isn’t perfect. Matthew Hauser got the better of him in a sprint finish while Wilde was clearly the better athlete today. With Vilaca’s rate of improvement, though, it is fair to expect big things from him this year.
He might not win the world title but he absolutely has inserted himself in the conversation. At only 23 years of age, that is an envious position to be in.
Therefore, when the dust settles on Yokohama, perhaps the biggest takeaway will be that the new men’s Series leader is here to stay and that anyone planning to wrestle away his number 1 spot will have a real fight on their hands.
