Interview: Miguel Hidalgo on Going Fast and Being Patient

Benjamin Eastman

On the surface, it would be easy to think Miguel Hidalgo is in a hurry. As the only man born in the 21st century to be currently ranked in the top-40 of the WTCS, he is one of the future stars of the sport. Indeed, he has been on the rise for some time now. At WTCS Montreal in 2021, Hidalgo was almost the first man born this century to achieve a top-10 finish at a WTCS race. On that day, he took 11th. In 2022 he improved upon that…

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Where Did the Best Triathletes of 2022 Score Their Points?

Benjamin Eastman

As we wrote earlier today, in the 2022 WTCS only half of the races in the regular season counted towards athletes’ total scores. Of the eight races in the Series, an athlete only had to score at four of them ahead of the Final in Abu Dhabi. With that in mind, at which races did the top-15 athletes in the WTCS standings score their points? We did not include the Abu Dhabi Final in this analysis. As the Series Final, the reason for attendance is in the name and athletes…

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Half of the WTCS Counted Towards the World Title

Benjamin Eastman

As the dust settles on the 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series, it is worth reflecting on how the season has unfolded and brought us the current standings. This season delivered some great racing and fans were in the fortunate position that in both the men’s and women’s rankings the world title would be decided at the Final itself. The 2022 season, though, has had one problem that has dogged it throughout. Only 50% of the races counted towards the final Series standings. As a result, from the perspective of the…

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The Big Risers in the Final WTCS Standings

Benjamin Eastman

Before Abu Dhabi, we wrote an article that suggested some of the athletes that could rise up the standings in the World Triathlon Championship Series with a big result in Abu Dhabi. Some of those suggestions were accurate, some were not and there were some athletes that caught us completely by surprise. The Men Morgan Pearson was the biggest riser in the men’s field as he jumped 81 places to take 33rd in the Series. His silver medal in Abu Dhabi was a remarkable comeback after a difficult year of…

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Velasquez and Andrade On Top After Close Races

Benjamin Eastman

The final Americas Cup races of the year took place in Manta, Ecuador, at the weekend. Several home favourites started for Ecuador however the local fans could only celebrate one win from the two races. Juan Jose Andrade Figueroa Breaks Clear 44 men took to the start line in Manta to compete over the Sprint distance. The winner of the last Americas Cup in Viña del Mar, Ramon Armando Matute, was first out of the water with a substantial lead over the field. Next out were Andrade Figueroa and Gabriel Teran…

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The Off-Season Challenge Presented by the Abu Dhabi Final

Benjamin Eastman

By taking place at the end of November, the 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series Final in Abu Dhabi was one of the latest elite triathlons that have ever been held in the year. In 2021 the WTCS Final was held in late August in Edmonton, while in 2020 the only WTCS race of the pandemic-hit season was in Hamburg in early September. The 2019 Final was Lausanne in late August and both the 2017 and 2018 Finals in Rotterdam and Gold Coast, respectively, took place in September. Looking ahead to…

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5 Stories You Might Have Missed at WTCS Abu Dhabi

Benjamin Eastman

The Return of Henri Schoeman After a challenging twelve months, including a nasty elbow injury, Schoeman made his first WTCS start since Yokohama in May 2021. Indeed, Schoeman had not started individually since the Tokyo Olympics where he unfortunately did not finish. His one race start in that period came as part of the mixed team relay for South Africa at the Commonwealth Games in July. On his day, Schoeman is one of the best athletes in the field. The 2018 Commonwealth Games champion has WTCS wins in Abu Dhabi…

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New World Triathlon Maternity Policy to Kick In

Benjamin Eastman

One of the most significant personal issues that confront elite female athletes is the balance between pursuing a career in professional sport with aspirations to start a family. For some athletes, it is not on their radar during their professional career however for others it is a major life decision that they do not wish to postpone. In recent years, we have seen athletes like 2019 world champion Katie Zaferes take a pregnancy break after the Tokyo Olympics and 2012 Olympic champion Nicola Spirig take maternity breaks in her athletic…

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WTCS Abu Dhabi 2022: The Statistical Breakdown

Benjamin Eastman

WTCS Abu Dhabi may have turned out to to be the best racing of the season, with breakaways, incredible comebacks and world championships that went down to the wire. As seen in the splits in the men’s and women’s races, there is a lot to unpack in how the races unfolded. The Swim The biggest concentration of athletes emerged around 40 seconds behind the swim leader, Mark Devay of Hungary. What is interesting is that after 15 seconds, the density of athletes did not drop below 0.010 until almost a…

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Splits Breakdown at World Triathlon Championships Final 2022

Benjamin Eastman

The WTCS Final in Abu Dhabi saw a number of incredible performances. Here, we dive into the fastest splits of the men’s and women’s races. Fastest Swims Men As has become a trend in 2022, Mark Dévay crushed the swim. The pace in the water was high as each athlete came out of the water one second after another and one at a time. Of the contenders for the world title, Bergere was 17 seconds down on the lead, Wilde was 23 seconds down and Yee was 41 seconds back.…

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Kaiser the Queen of the Field at Ipoh Asia Cup

Benjamin Eastman

Celine Kaiser Too Good for Field There are times in triathlon when races boil down to simple factors. Sometimes, an athlete is simply too good a runner for the rest of the field and all the tactics and calculations essentially go out of the window. The Asian Cup in Ipoh, Malaysia, was one such instance. Celine Kaiser of Germany ripped a 17:03 run split to take a comprehensive win. Only one other athlete was able to log a run split within one minute of Kaiser’s time: silver medallist Olivia Thornbury…

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Zachaeus and Stroschneider Take the Wins in Kenya

Benjamin Eastman

Zachaeus Eases to Win in Men’s Race Stefan Zachaeus of Luxembourg took a comfortable victory at the African Cup in Kilifi, Kenya after breaking clear with Martin Demuth and Badr Siwane in the swim. The trio pushed the opening stages of the bike however they were later joined by other athletes, including Donald Hillebregt of the Netherlands. Once the athletes were onto the run, the gulf in class was evident as Zachaeus quickly took the lead and split the second fastest run of the day in a 16:16. Hillebregt had…

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Léo Bergere is the 2022 World Champion

Benjamin Eastman

After the drama of the women’s race at WTCS Abu Dhabi yesterday, there was an element of doubt as to whether the men’s race would match it. Strap yourself in. The men gave us what might have been the best finale in WTCS history. From the start, all eyes were on Hayden Wilde and Alex Yee, first and second in the Series respectively. Yee trailed Wilde by 118 points and had to finish at least one place ahead of his rival from New Zealand to take the title. Neither of…

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What Happened to Flora Duffy’s Phantom Swim Penalty?

Benjamin Eastman

Flora Duffy put in a majestic performance to win her fourth world title at WTCS Abu Dhabi. Her winning margin was so big that any penalty she could have received would not have mattered; however there was an instance in the race in which she was shown with a mysterious swim penalty that vanished shortly after. Midway through the bike, a 15 second swim penalty for swim behaviour appeared alongside Flora Duffy in the live timing. Maya Kingma also received the same penalty and it was noticeable that two of…

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