2005: Another Snowsill Win and Robertson Completes Hat-Trick

Benjamin Eastman

Men Both Olympic champions took to the start line at the 2005 World Championships in Gamagori. Simon Whitfield and Hamish Carter each arrived in Gamagori in fine fettle alongside contenders such as Frederic Belaubre, Brad Kahlefelt and Courtney Atkinson. Each of those men exited the water in the front group. Meanwhile, two-time world champion Peter Robertson entered T1 some 45 seconds behind the leader. Over the course of the bike, Robertson was able to make up the ground lost in the swim and the race ultimately came down to the…

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Rounding Up the New Year’s Eve Runs

Benjamin Eastman

As many triathletes get back into training ahead of the 2023 season, some elected to race on New Year’s Eve. In Denmark, the Holm siblings took part in the Sparta’s New Year’s Race / Nytårsløb. Racing over the 5km distance, both Emil Holm and Anne Holm put up some solid times. Emil Holm led the way with a 14:24. After recently winning the African Cup in Dakhla, Holm is clearly continuing to grow and improve in the sport. His best ever World Cup finish came in 2022 with his 8th…

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The Incredibly Difficult TriStats Quiz of 2022

Benjamin Eastman

How well did you pay attention to the ins and outs of triathlon this year? The last race of the year has been and gone, while the first races of the new season are creeping closer on the horizon. With 2023 upon us, let’s have a look back over this season and see how much of it we can actually remember. It is therefore time to get your thinking caps on and see if you can get all 20 questions right.

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5 Things We’d Like to See in the WTCS in 2023

Benjamin Eastman

Breakaways on the bike The last two WTCS races of 2022, in Bermuda and Abu Dhabi, saw ambitious breakaways in both the men’s and women’s fields. At each race, the winner came from those breakaways and we are hoping to see more of this in 2023. We have already anticipated that breakaways may be a little more common next season (you can read more about that here). Breakaways will require a tactical or philosophical shift for several athletes, primarily the ones that do not have the run speed of the…

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2006: Hat-Trick for Snowsill While Kahlefeldt Crushes It

Benjamin Eastman

2006 represented only the second occasion that triathlon took place in the Commonwealth Games. Having made two Olympic appearances at this point, it was an important stepping stone in the growth of the sport. Later in the year, however, the world championships in Lausanne took place under controversial circumstances. Less than two weeks before the racing began, the International Astronomical Union agreed upon the definition of a “planet” and determined that Pluto did not fulfil the criteria. As a result, Pluto was relegated to the status of a “dwarf planet”.…

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2007: Fernandes and Unger Out-Duel Snowsill and Gomez

Benjamin Eastman

Yesterday we kicked off our dive into the history of triathlon by looking at the racing of 2008. Today, we wind the clock a further step back. Men 2007 was the year the world was introduced to the iPhone. It was also the year that Javier Gomez Noya made it onto his first world championships podium. Much as 2007 saw the beginning of a new era in mobile technology, so too did triathlon with the rise of its new star. Having previously hosted two World Cups, Hamburg was selected to…

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TriStats Voters Pick Brownlee and Duffy in Olympic Champ Showdown

Benjamin Eastman

Earlier this week, we asked who would win in a head-to-head between the past three Olympic champions in the men’s and women’s fields. Of course, it is hard to say exactly what would happen. A myriad of factors, including the exact course and the other athletes on the start line, would influence the outcome. In some instances there may also be an element of recency bias, with the performances of a decade ago now fading in their memorability. The challenge in any hypothetical race would thus likely come down to…

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2008: Despite Dominance, Gomez and Snowsill Still Denied

Benjamin Eastman

It was once said by Mark Twain that history never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme. Triathlon as a sport is now entering a period of maturity having established itself on the world sporting stage over the past two decades. What rhymes might there be if one were to look back through the history of the sport? We are starting a new series of articles to reflect on the history of the sport. Each article will delve into a year of triathlon from the pre-WTCS era, digging up races…

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Poll: Which Men’s Olympic Champion Would Win?

Benjamin Eastman

Yesterday, we asked you to vote for which of the past three women’s Olympic champions in triathlon you think would win in a head-to-head race at each of their gold medal winning peaks. Today, we are posing the same question for the men. Whereas the women’s poll consisted of the winners from London, Rio and Tokyo, this poll will also have the winner of Beijing in 2008. This is because Alistair Brownlee won in both 2012 and 2016. Rather than compare him against himself, we decided to group his victories.…

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Poll: On Their Day, Which Women’s Olympic Champ Wins?

Benjamin Eastman

Today we are asking a simple question. Of the past three women’s Olympic champions in triathlon, who would win in a head-to-head race at their peak? In 2012, Nicola Spirig narrowly won Olympic gold in a dramatic sprint finish with Lisa Norden. By 2016, Gwen Jorgensen had been nigh-on unstoppable for the best part of two years. At the Rio Olympics, though, she was challenged by Spirig who had returned after absences from the sport. Jorgensen won gold nonetheless, while Spirig took silver. At the delayed Tokyo Olympics of 2021,…

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Difficult Times Ahead for Metz Triathlon

Benjamin Eastman

The French Grand Prix is one of the premier triathlon circuits, contested by elite names from across Europe and beyond. Over a decade ago, the likes of Alistair Brownlee and Javier Gomez Noya graced the circuit while this year the likes of Alex Yee, Mario Mola and Jelle Geens went head-to-head. Over the course of five races, an array of French clubs compete in a team classification. Of the five athletes that start per team (and per gender) the scores of the three highest finishers are recorded. Currently, however, it…

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Who Would Win An Intercontinental Mixed Team Relay?

Benjamin Eastman

After a hectic year of racing, we can all now breathe and enjoy Christmas. With no racing to report on, we decided to entertain a hypothetical race of our own. Namely, who would win in an Intercontinental Mixed Team Relay? To come up with the teams, we have separated athletes using World Triathlon’s continental rankings and followed their categories. For that reason, North America and Latin America are combined as Americas which gives five teams in total: Americas, Africa, Asia, Oceania and Europe. The obvious starting point is Europe. Europe…

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After Conquering All, What Is Left For Flora Duffy To Do?

Benjamin Eastman

Flora Duffy will be remembered as a titan of the sport. After winning her fourth world title this season following an incredibly closely fought battle with Georgia Taylor-Brown, Duffy is in rarefied company in the history of the sport. In addition, this year she won her second Commonwealth Games title. To go with that, her CV contains two ITU World Cross Triathlon Championships and no fewer than six Xterra World Championships. And then we come to arguably Duffy’s crowning achievement: her Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 2021. In essence,…

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Racing the WTCS and as a Runner Voted the Likeliest Combo

Benjamin Eastman

Earlier this week, we surveyed some of the athletes with history as dual sport triathletes. That is to say the individuals that competed internationally in both triathlon and another sport concurrently. Many of the instances came while the athletes were Juniors, such as Cassandre Beaugrand, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Jake Birtwhistle and, more recently, Jule Behrens. This led us to ask: will any WTCS athlete compete in another sport internationally in the same season? In recent seasons, there have been some close calls. In 2022, Hayden Wilde narrowly missed qualifying for the…

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The Fastest Men’s WTCS Run Splits Of All Time

Benjamin Eastman

As with the women’s WTCS, 2022 saw members of the men’s field record splits that were among the best in WTCS history. How fast are the fastest? Some of the splits in the past 13 years have been nothing short of mind-boggling. Olympic distance Alistair Brownlee continues to be the owner of the fastest run split in the WTCS courtesy of his 28:43 in London in 2009. However, in 2022 Alex Yee gave that time an almighty scare with his 28:50 at WTCS Yokohama. But for a series of cramps…

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