Winning a medal in the WTCS is no easy feat. Yet every athlete that steps onto a start line this year will harbour hopes that they can break through and win one.
With WTCS Abu Dhabi less than two weeks away, today we are surveying some of the candidates that could win their first WTCS medal in 2023. By it’s nature, the question means that any athlete that has already won a medal is not considered.
To go with that, we will suggest the course that we think offers each athlete the best shot at their first medal.
Here, we will start with the men’s field, with the athletes in no particular order.
Csongor Lehmann HUN (1999)
Lehmann is a man on the rise. He followed the World U23 title in 2021 with a maiden World Cup win in 2022 by taking gold in Karlovy Vary. Moreover, he finished 4th at the 2022 European Championships and earned a first top-10 finish in a WTCS race in Cagliari.
Fellow 2022 World Cup race winners David Castro Fajardo and Gianluca Pozzatti will also be worth keeping an eye on. However, Lehmann’s youth gives him the edge.
He is young and clearly improving. Indeed, he may be the coming man at the WTCS level.
Right now, Lehmann seems a little stronger over the Olympic distance. Cagliari might be his best chance at a medal this year.
Cagliari in 2022 lent itself to a little more action on the bike than Yokohama, the other Olympic distance race from 2022 also on this year’s circuit. Lehmann is a talented runner however we aren’t sure if he could yet medal in a straight running race (which would be likelier in Yokohama). In a more tactical race involving attacks on the bike, Lehmann could be a dark horse.
Kevin McDowell USA (1992)
McDowell produced a brilliant performance at the Tokyo Olympics as he took 6th place, the best finish of any non-WTCS medallist. Over the years, he has also been great on the World Cup circuit, as seven World Cup medals attest.
However, he is curiously yet to finish higher than 10th at a WTCS race.
It seems McDowell just needs a stroke of luck on the day at a WTCS event for the pieces to slot into place. He certainly has the running ability to be a threat to the podium on most courses. He matched his best WTCS finish of 10th in Cagliari last year. It will likely be a question of taking that extra step.
We think his best shot at a medal will come in Yokohama. In a sense, it could be the kind of breakout opportunity that McDowell’s compatriot Morgan Pearson took in 2021. The course is similar in profile to that of the Tokyo Olympics and the flat run should favour McDowell.
As one of the best performances of his career came in Japan, there is no reason he cannot do so again this year.
Max Studer SUI (1996)
Like McDowell, Studer had a fantastic showing at the Tokyo Olympics. That day, he finished 9th and really asserted himself as one to watch. Injuries, though, have hampered him since.
While Studer finished 10th at WTCS Hamburg in 2020, that marked his only WTCS race since the Games.
It is therefore hard to gauge his form at the highest level given his absences. That being said, he won a bronze medal at the Pontevedra World Cup in 2022. The winner in Pontevedra that day, Sergio Baxter Cabrera, will be one to watch too but is a little younger and less experienced. As such, Baxter may need another season to mature on the circuit before he is ready to make the next step.
Notably, Studer also recently dropped a 28:26 10km on the road in Valencia. His run thus looks to be coming into form ahead of the new season.
Montreal feels like an ideal opportunity for Studer. It is generally a fast course and one that should suit his running speed. He does not appear to heavily favour one distance over the other so he could equally win his first medal at an Olympic distance event.
However, it may take a couple of races early in the season to re-find his feet in the WTCS. With Montreal being the fourth race on the circuit, that might represent his best chance.
Miguel Hidalgo BRA (2000)
Hidalgo combines exceptional speed in the water with tremendous running ability.
In 2021, he finished 11th at WTCS Montreal and then in 2022 he recorded a 6th place in Leeds. Leeds was particularly impressive given how he brought both his swimming and running talent to bear. Hidalgo is still one of the youngest men in the field and over the past two seasons has demonstrated clear improvement. He has been fairly close to a podium already and, with the next step in his development, could land upon it.
By his own admission, he is not yet strong enough over the Olympic distance to contend for a medal and realistically he will not win a medal over the longer race this year.
Over the Sprint distance, though, he is deadly.
It is for that reason that we think Hamburg will be Hidalgo’s best chance. The course is relatively flat and unchallenging and so will reward speed over strength. With his swim, Hidalgo will likely be towards the front for the entirety of the race.
The key question will be whether he can keep a cool head a deliver the final kick on the run when it counts.
Kenji Nener JPN (1993)
Over the 2022 WTCS, Nener demonstrated a high level of consistency as he recorded finishes of 9th in Abu Dhabi, 13th in Montreal and 12th in Hamburg. In 2021, he also finished 14th in Tokyo.
Over the past two seasons, then, Nener has been quietly chipping away at the top-10 on a regular basis. 2021 was the year that he became a more regular figure on the circuit and the past two seasons will have helped him progress a lot.
Now that he seems to have put a series of stomach and overtraining issues to bed, 2023 could be the year where he reveals his true potential.
Of all the races in the Series, Sunderland may be Nener’s best shot at a medal. The first reason is the distance. Nener is good over the Olympic distance however his results have generally been a little better at Sprint races.
The second reason is the factor of the unknown. Sunderland will be a new venue in 2023 and there is nothing really to compare it against. Aside from a sea swim (which Nener has often enjoyed), there is not a great deal known about the course. New courses can often be ripe for an unexpected medallist (such as Manoel Messias in Cagliari last year) and introduces the intangible quality of the unknown to the mix.
With that mind in, it will likely be ripe for someone to medal from left field. Nener possesses both the experience and rounded skillset to put himself in contention in such conditions.
