Pearson and Vermeylen Take On Off-Season Races

Benjamin Eastman

Two 2023 World Cup medallists turned back the clock at the weekend and returned to their pre-triathlon sports. Morgan Pearson, the winner of the Karlovy Vary World Cup, plumped for some racing on the track indoors over training outdoors in the cold. A runner in the days before becoming a triathlete, he dusted off his spikes and toed the start line at the Potts Invitational in Colorado. It was a rare deviation in training from the zone 2 guru. Pearson nonetheless put up some head-turning performances. He took on the…

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The State of Play in the German Olympic Triathlon Team Race

Benjamin Eastman

Germany is one of the few countries to have almost completely finalised their Olympic team. All three of their women’s slots have been allocated while only one slot remains on the men’s side. As the defending world champions in the Mixed Team Relay, they have secured, at minimum, two male and two female places at the Games. Such is the state of the Olympic Qualification rankings, though, adding a third male and female slot will be a formality. Like America, Germany could come away with medals in all three Olympic…

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The State of Play in the American Olympic Triathlon Team Race

Benjamin Eastman

The American triathlon team finds itself in one of the more unusual positions on the international stage insofar that it could leave Paris this summer with medals in all three events or in none. Whereas a couple of countries, such as France and Britain, feel like bankers to take at least one medal, America does not quite inspire the same base confidence. And yet it nonetheless feels eminently possible that they could medal in each event. Perhaps Germany is the only other team in the same boat. One of the…

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Who Made the Biggest Percentage Improvements in 2023?

Benjamin Eastman

When we looked at the biggest raw improvements of the 2023 WTCS season, the athletes that rose from a lower starting point stood at an advantage over those that had earned a top-10 race finish in the season prior. Anyone trying to match the 29 place improvements made by Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal and Max Studer would have faced a challenge had they finished 2022 with a season best result of 8th. In this article, we will therefore visit the 2023 improvements once more albeit this time in terms of…

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The Final WTCS Bridesmaid: Time For A South American Race

Benjamin Eastman

Australia is back in the WTCS. Following the recent announcement of Wollongong as the host of the 2025 WTCS Final, the country will join a select group of countries to have hosted a WTCS stop in three separate locations. Moreover, the Wollongong Final will represent the second occasion in which Australia has hosted the Final (the other being in Gold Coast in 2018). It will also stand as the third Final to take place in Oceania; Auckland in 2012 was the other instance. Broadening the view, Wollongong will serve as…

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The State of Play in the New Zealand Olympic Tri Team Race

Benjamin Eastman

After a successful 2023, the New Zealand triathlon squad are bubbling nicely ahead of the Olympic Games. With a defending individual medallist and a promising relay, they could potentially contend for multiple medals in Paris this summer. New Zealand are forecasted to take two slots for each gender. Their slots are all but guaranteed through the Mixed Team Relay which makes individual qualification somewhat moot. Securing a third athlete for either gender seems like a bit of a long shot right now. None of the New Zealand women are ranked…

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How Did The 2022 World U23 Medallists Get On In 2023?

Benjamin Eastman

Having pondered what the medallists from the most recent World U23 Championships might accomplish this season, it is fitting to turn the clock back a year to the podiums of the equivalent championships in 2022. How the medallists from 2022 fared in 2023 can offer a small insight into what could be expected from their 2023 counterparts in 2024. Moreover, they offer intrigue in and of themselves. While it was only one season in what are otherwise young careers, there is plenty to unearth. This time last year, the athletes…

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Wollongong Announced As WTCS Final Host For 2025

Benjamin Eastman

World Triathlon have confirmed that Wollongong, Australia, will play host to the World Triathlon Championship Series Finals in 2025. After being held in Spain for consecutive years (in Pontevedra in 2023 and Malaga in 2024), the Finals will return to the southern hemisphere for the first time since 2018 when they were held in Gold Coast, Australia. In 2018, Gold Coast also hosted the Commonwealth Games. In Wollongong, the 2025 world champions in the Senior, U23, Junior and Para-triathlon categories will all be named. This follows the pattern of the…

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What To Expect From The Reigning World U23 Medallists

Benjamin Eastman

With success comes attention. Winning a medal at the World U23 Championships is a surefire way to put oneself on the triathlon map. Such athletes generally draw greater scrutiny over the subsequent years of their careers and many, such as the current men’s world champion, go on to achieve even greater success. In this article, we will take a look at the medallists from the most recent edition of the World U23 Championships and forecast what might be expected from each this year. One point to note is that the…

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The State of Play in the British Olympic Triathlon Team Race

Benjamin Eastman

As things stand, Britain is in line to claim three women’s slots and two men’s slots at the Paris Olympic Games. Four of the slots (namely all bar one of the women’s places) have been secured already by dint of the British performance at the 2022 Mixed Team Relay World Championships. The third women’s slot is essentially a formality at this stage, based on the Olympic Qualification rankings. Meanwhile, Britain will require a big start to the season from two men not named Alex Yee if they want to earn…

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How Does Paralympic Qualification Look At The Start Of 2024?

Benjamin Eastman

On 1st July 2024, the qualification window for this year’s Paralympic Games will close, putting us a smidge past the midpoint of the window. In this article, we delve into the latest standings in each classification and assess who might be able to stage a comeback in the second half of the qualifying window to book their slot in Paris. As a reminder, there are 120 slots available for triathletes at the 2024 Paralympic Games of which 54 will be allocated to male athletes and 50 to female athletes. The…

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Which U23 Athletes Will Be Ageing Up In 2024?

Benjamin Eastman

The U23 ranks of elite triathlon offer a degree of protection to its members. Throughout the sport, there is a kind of shared understanding that such athletes need time to further develop and that it would be unwise to expect too much of them at this stage in their career. The age-protected championships of the U23 level further reinforce the concept that the period is a time for development. Once an athlete ages up from the U23 category, though, they lose some of that developmental cover. Indeed, they enter a…

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Six Junior and U23 Athletes to Watch Out For in 2024

Benjamin Eastman

It is a new year and a new batch of talented athletes are primed to make their move on the international stage. In this article, we highlight six up and coming athletes that could make a splash this season. As a disclaimer, we are not calling the athletes named here the definitive best athletes in the Junior/U23 categories. Instead we are highlighting six that look to have particular promise going forward.  The athletes still have to be eligible to race in either the Junior or U23 categories in 2024, so…

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The Broken Crystal Ball: Our Improbable Predictions for 2024

Benjamin Eastman

At the start of the year, the season always looks ripe with possibility. Any of a number of things could occur; for instance, at the start of 2023, would anyone have anticipated an even more dramatic coming men’s WTCS Final than the one that preceded it? Sometimes, however, the crystal ball through which we see the future falters. One only needs to see our improbable predictions for 2023 to realise the extent to which the the crystal ball is broken. With that in mind, in this article we will delve…

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Karlsruhe and Neckarsulm To Join Forces in 2024 Bundesliga

Benjamin Eastman

While other teams have focused on bolstering their ranks through recruitment drives, two Bundesliga teams will be merging ahead of the upcoming season. Karlsruhe Lemminge finished 12th overall in the women’s series. The team were promoted after the 2022 season and had a successful first year in the top division. In the men’s competition, Sportunion Neckarsulm took 6th place. Heading into the final round, Neckarsulm sat in 4th place. However, a sub-optimal day at the last round in Hannover saw them drop two places. While Karlsruhe did not have a…

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