McShane and Schofield Win Oceania Super Sprint Champs

Benjamin Eastman

The Oceania season came to a close yesterday with the Continental Championships over the Super Sprint distance. The competition had a similar format to the Lievin Indoor World Cup, albeit in an outdoor form. To start things off, the athletes took on a 150m pool swim (50m) before progressing to a 4km bike on a criterium circuit. A 1km run on the track then rounded off the competition. With Dylan McCullough, Matthew Hauser, Jaz Hedgeland and Ellie Hoitink not starting, Oceania was was guaranteed a new set of continental champions…

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Hayden Wilde Fires Off 5000m Personal Best

Benjamin Eastman

Earlier in the week, Hayden Wilde fired a warning shot ahead of the Paris Olympic Games as he clocked a 5000m personal best. Running on the track in Huelva, Spain, Wilde stopped the clock at 13:23.91. In doing so, he lowered his previous best time of 13:29.47 from 2021 by over 5 seconds. Notably, his new best is not too far away from the Olympic qualifying time of 13:05. For an athlete juggling three sports, it represents quite the turn of speed. Wilde had already demonstrated his form earlier in…

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French Grand Prix Season Kicks Off In Fréjus This Weekend

Benjamin Eastman

The French Grand Prix is back and it will start with a bang. The opening stage of the series takes place in its customary slot in Fréjus this weekend and it will offer the first clash of 2024 between two of the favourites for Olympic gold this summer. The season will then continue in Metz and Bordeaux in June before concluding in September with stops in Quiberon and Saint-Jean-des-Monts. As is the norm in the series, the racing will be a Sprint distance affair. Kicking things off is a one-lap…

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How Do The Olympic Triathlon Universality Places Look?

Benjamin Eastman

At the Paris Olympic Games, two slots in the men’s and women’s triathlon races will be reserved for the Universality pathway. These are allocated by the Tripartite Commission and are open primarily to countries that have traditionally sent small delegations to the Games. To receive a slot, an athlete’s federation must have applied for the berth and the athlete in question needs to make it into the top-180 of the world rankings. The Tripartite Commission will then finalise their consideration of the applications and distribute the slots. Similarly to the…

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Flora Duffy To Make First WTCS Start In 18 Months

Benjamin Eastman

Flora Duffy has been added to the start list for WTCS Yokohama. After uncertainty over her WTCS comeback, the defending Olympic champion will be making her first start in the Series in 18 months. In a shift from previous false dawns in 2023, Duffy was not originally on the start lists for Yokohama. Whereas last year, for example at the Paris Test Event, Duffy entered races and then withdrew, in Yokohama she has been a later addition. Considering that she has been added to the start list less than a…

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Who Had The Best Splits At The Chengdu World Cup?

Benjamin Eastman

Swim Therese Feuersinger was in a league of her own in the swim in Chengdu. She claimed the top split in 19:19 and was long out of sight by the time the next athletes followed her into T1. That Feuersinger led out of the water should be of little surprise; she was the fastest woman in the first discipline at WTCS Sunderland last year. What did surprise, though, was just how far ahead she pulled away from her rivals. Wen Wei was the next woman out of the water in…

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Julie Derron Seals Commanding Win At Chengdu World Cup

Benjamin Eastman

Julie Derron was nothing short of imperious as she won the Chengdu World Cup. Wearing number 1, she had arrived as the pre-race favourite and sought to cap a lengthy training block in China with a win. However, her race was thrown out of kilter before it even got going. Derron did not have a bad swim. Neither, for that matter, did most of the field. Yet practically every athlete was made to look like they were swimming through treacle in contrast to the smooth speed displayed by Therese Feuersinger.…

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Max Stapley Earns First World Cup Win in Chengdu

Benjamin Eastman

It was a race won early and then late. As the men dove into the water at the Chengdu World Cup, several narratives surrounded the field. Would Jonas Schomburg manage to trump his compatriot Lasse Nygaard Priester in the German race to Paris? Would Tayler Reid make right the penalty that had cost him a medal at the Wollongong World Cup a week prior? Would Márk Dévay assert his credentials in an increasingly-tight Hungarian Olympic battle? The answer was yes to the three above questions however no one quite had…

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Hannesdottir and Ismail strike gold at Pokhara Asia Cup

Benjamin Eastman

After the Asian Championships over the Sprint and Olympic distances captured most of the continental triathlon headlines in April, the month ended with an Asia Cup event in Pokhara, Nepal. The Sprint distance event attracted several athletes from the region, particularly from neighbouring India, and gave them a chance to test themselves against an international field. Perhaps most significantly, the racing in Pokhara may have had implications for the start lists at the Paris Olympics, although the full consequences of the action are yet to be seen. Women’s race In…

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Kuriackova and Mendoza on top at La Guaira Americas Cup

Benjamin Eastman

After launching the international season with an Americas Cup back in February, racing returned to La Guaira at the weekend. The city hosted another Americas Cup with the South American Championships over the Olympic distance also on the line. Women’s race Ivana Kuriackova won a bronze medal in La Guaira earlier in the year and was back for more. Her Olympic hopes currently hang by a thread as she is locked in a tight battle with Sinem Francisca Tous Servera (who was racing elsewhere) for the European women’s New Flag…

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The Youth and Senior Standouts at the British 2024 Tests

Benjamin Eastman

Running in parallel to the British Junior performance assessments were tests for both the country’s top Youth prospects and Senior athletes looking to put their names forward for international selection later in 2024. The Senior tests were the same as those undertaken by the Juniors, with an 800m swim on the Saturday preceding a 20km bike into a 5km run on the Sunday. For the Youth athletes, the test was half the distance and consisted of a 400m swim on the Saturday and then a 10km bike into a 2.5km…

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Jacome defends South American title as Flores pips Ubilla

Benjamin Eastman

The South American Championships kicked off yesterday in La Guaira, Venezuela, with the Junior races opening the event. Defending her title from last year, Dominga Elena Jacome Espinoza claimed a massive victory with a winning margin of almost 4 minutes. She produced the fastest swim of the field in 10:47 and only her teammate Sol Ottenhsimer Schreiber (10:48) was able to stick within 30 seconds of her. From there, Jacome did not look back. She ripped a bike split of 31:11; for context, the next quickest split was a 33:38.…

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Julie Derron Sizes Up Win Against Tough Chengdu Field

Benjamin Eastman

After tasting World Cup success last weekend, two of the women’s medallists from Wollongong will be looking to make the podium again in Chengdu on Monday. Tilda Månsson is coming off a win in Wollongong, the third of her young career. Similarly, Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto earned silver on the Australian coast and will aim to win consecutive World Cup medals for the first time in her career. Given their performance levels less than a week ago, both should be counted as podium contenders in China. At the same time,…

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Pressure on Priester to Deliver at the Chengdu World Cup

Benjamin Eastman

The Chengdu World Cup will be a showdown of sorts. Lasse Nygaard Priester will be up against Jonas Schomburg as the race to claim the final place on the German Olympic team enters the home straight. Priester will be wearing number 1 in Chengdu while Schomburg will be wearing number 2 and, based on their form over the past twelve months, they will likely be evenly matched. Priester was a multiple World Cup medallist last season, a haul which included a medal on Chinese soil in Weihai. For his part,…

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Reckmann and Krumbeck Win German Junior Tests

Benjamin Eastman

On the same weekend Britain’s leading Junior triathletes were put through their paces, Germany’s top young talents were likewise tested at the DTU Junior Cup in Halle (Saale). The German model mostly matched the British approach in terms of layout. An 800m swim kicked things off on the Saturday (although the German test was long course while the British test was short course). The test then concluded on the Sunday with a bike-run of 21km and 5km. The cycling component was run in a time trial format with the athletes…

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