Batista Seals World Junior Title After Dramatic Finale

Benjamin Eastman

With only a few more brush strokes, a handful of men could have painted a masterpiece at the World Junior Championships. One by one, though, each fell agonisingly short. In the end, one man managed to apply the finishing golden touches and in doing so he produced something spectacular. Although the opening salvo in the 750m swim did little to break up the field, two men emerged at the head of the pack. Carter Stuhlmacher had been a dominant force in Junior racing in the Americas. His Hungarian contemporary, Márton…

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Ilona Hadhoum Soars To World Junior Title In Hamburg

Benjamin Eastman

Anxious faces gazed out across the Binnenalster as the wait for the women’s World Junior Championships continued. Some jumped on the spot, some kept as many layers on as possible, some rehearsed taking their marks. Amid a dazzling array of talent, the size of the occasion was greater than anything seen previously in the Junior ranks this season. The gold medal dangled ahead of the athletes. All they had to do was seize it. Once the race finally got under way, it was Tabea Huys that nipped into an early…

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No Fighting: The Lessons Of The WTCS Hamburg Course

Benjamin Eastman

As noted in the cheat sheets for WTCS Hamburg, the racing will take place over a Super Sprint distance as opposed to the more traditional Sprint course. On what was already a tight route on narrow streets, there will be several precarious spots. The biggest talking point is the swim. Hamburg is notorious for what happens under the bridge during the first discipline. Under the cover of darkness, there is plenty of contact, some of it unintentional, some of it not. With the athletes due to spend around a quarter…

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The Start List Cheat Sheets For WTCS Hamburg 2023

Benjamin Eastman

WTCS Hamburg presents a unique challenge in 2023. Instead of the usual Sprint distance fare, the event will be contested over a multi-round Super Sprint format. On Friday, there will be two men’s qualifiers and two women’s qualifiers which will run over the Super Sprint distance. The ten best finishers in each qualifier will make it to the final on Saturday. Those that do not qualify will then compete in a repechage (also a Super Sprint) on Friday evening. The ten best finishers in the repechage will then be added…

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Breaking Down Round 3 of the Women’s Bundesliga 2023

Benjamin Eastman

While they did not sweep the podium as they had done in Schliersee, Buschhütten were nonetheless a cut above their rivals in Düsseldorf. A third race of the Bundesliga therefore yielded a third win. As much as the overall title is essentially decided, there are still plenty of points to focus on throughout the standings. Potsdam commenced their rise after not starting in Schliersee. Bonn continued their efforts to hold of the challenge of KTT 01. Lüneburg also fought against their sliding ranking in a quest to recapture the momentum…

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Rivals Line Up To Knock Yee From His Perch In Hamburg

Benjamin Eastman

Since the start of 2022, Alex Yee’s record in the WTCS reads: seven finishes, five wins, one bronze medal and a 5th place. Two of those wins have come from his two appearances in this year’s Series and he will arrive in Hamburg as the only unbeaten athlete in the Series. However, the term “unbeaten” comes with an asterisk. At the French Grand Prix in Metz, Yee suffered a defeat to Matthew Hauser. The Australian escaped after a fast swim and then kept clear of Yee’s chase pack on the…

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Breaking Down Round 3 of the Men’s Bundesliga 2023

Benjamin Eastman

The race is on. After Buschhütten cruised to the win in the opening two rounds of the 2023 Bundesliga, Team Saar struck back in Düsseldorf. A single point now separate the two teams with two rounds to go. If Team Saar can win the next round in Tübingen, a lights-out finale will be in store in September. In the midfield, 6 points cover 6th through 10th and a number of teams could make late charges up the standings. Further down the table, four teams appear to be in the fight…

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Potter Has Chance To Seize Series Lead In Hamburg

Benjamin Eastman

With two wins her to name, Beth Potter is enjoying the best season of her (triathlon) career. Victories at WTCS Abu Dhabi and WTCS Montreal have established her at the forefront of the women’s field and marked her out as one of the select few capable of winning the world title. With neither of Sophie Coldwell or Georgia Taylor-Brown racing in Hamburg, Potter is the only 2023 WTCS race winner on the women’s start list. Hamburg also holds happy memories for the Scot. Until Abu Dhabi in March, Hamburg had…

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Mind-Boggling Talents Line Up To Chase World Junior Title

Benjamin Eastman

To quote My Chemical Romance, “all teenagers scare the livin’ shit out of me”. Seldom has that quote been more appropriate than when surveying the start lists for the World Junior Championships. This year, the men’s field in Hamburg is ridiculously deep. Before forecasting how the race might pan out, and this goes for the women’s preview too, a massive caveat has to stated in that Juniors are liable to do anything. Someone could pop off out of nowhere and claim the win. Likewise a favourite could have an ill-timed…

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Will Anyone Break Europe’s Female World Junior Titles Run?

Benjamin Eastman

Less than a week after last year’s World Junior champion, Tilda Månsson, claimed her second World Cup win, the time has come to determine her successor. In Montreal last season, Månsson’s victory built upon a streak of European success at the World Junior Championships. This year, an early favourite has emerged from the same continent. Margareta Vrablova of Slovakia has been on a tear in 2023. With European Junior Cup golds in Melilla, Quarteira, Olsztyn and Wels, she has been a veritable winning machine. To go alongside those golds, she claimed…

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The Stats and Splits Breakdown of the Tiszy World Cup 2023

Benjamin Eastman

On its long-awaited return to the World Cup circuit, the finals in Tiszaujvaros had a bit of everything. In the semi-finals, the swim had proven to be decisive and seemed to indicate that the first discipline would go a long way in shaping the final. You can take a look at the breakdown and race developments of the semi-finals here. To varying degrees, that proved to be the case in the men’s and women’s races. In the former, the swim played a major role in determining the medallists. Meanwhile, in…

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Sanborn and Norman Among Victors in Montreal Showdowns

Benjamin Eastman

The third stop of the World Para Series in Montreal, Canada, saw a number of tight battles for the gold. With points towards qualification for next year’s Paralympic Games on the line, several athletes also stepped up to lay down an early marker. PTWC Prior to Devonport earlier in the year, Howie Sanborn had never won a World Para Series event. From the start of the race in Montreal, Nic Beveridge and Jumpei Kimura were intent upon proving that the Americas champion’s win was an anomaly. Beveridge pushed a high…

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Roderick and Oliveras Speed to Wins in Larache

Benjamin Eastman

Summer is rarely the season for triathlon in Africa. Between the African Cup in Yasmine Hammamet at the end of May and the African Cup in Monastir in September, only one race on the continent has been pencilled into the schedule. That event came at the weekend with the African Premium Cup in Larache, Morocco. Although no African athletes started in the women’s race, the men’s event saw Badr Siwane of Morocco wear number 1. Against a cosmopolitan field, with all five continental associations represented, Siwane had a challenge on…

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Prestia’s PB and Four Stories You Might Have Missed

Benjamin Eastman

Across the multiple races at the weekend, there were several stories that flew under the radar. While much of the attention was drawn by Csongor Lehmann’s coronation in Tiszaujvaros, Fanni Szalai’s domination of the European Junior Cup and the racing at the World Para Series in Montreal (report to follow), there were several other notable things to happen. Read on below, then, to find five recent stories you might have missed in the world of triathlon. Peñaflor and Velasquez win in El Salvador At the Central American and Caribbean Games…

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Lehmann Completes Home Hat-Trick in Tiszaujvaros

Benjamin Eastman

Home expectation brings a different kind of pressure. Where Hayden Wilde experienced it when he raced in his homeland at the New Plymouth World Cup back in March, this time it fell to Csongor Lehmann as he led a redoubtable Hungarian team in Tiszaujvaros. Following consecutive European Cup wins in his home town, Lehmann had planted his flag early in the semi-finals to claim the number 1 seed for the final. All he had to do was repeat. With a stacked Hungarian team ready to stop him, not to mention…

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