With so much going on at a WTCS race, it is easy for some story lines to be missed. With that in mind, read on to find five stories you might have overlooked from this weekend’s action.
Lena Meißner backs it up
Lena Meißner ended her 2022 season in fantastic form. Consecutive 11th place finishes at WTCS Cagliari and WTCS Bermuda suggested that she had elevated herself to a new level.
Her performance at the WTCS Final in Abu Dhabi kicked that to an even higher gear.
She won a brilliant bronze medal at the Final and earmarked herself as an athlete on the rise. After such a breakthrough to finish her season, there was a small question over whether she would be able to back it up in 2023.
Already, she has answered that question.
She was 4th out of the water in Abu Dhabi (2023) and was a key player in the six woman breakaway. After taking advantage of a similar breakaway at the 2022 Final, it is clear that style of racing suits her. In the end, she finished 5th.
What stood out with her performance was how assured Meißner appeared. She has become one of the best swimmers in the field under the radar. She rarely leads out swims, but she has developed a great knack for being on the leader’s feet.
With her form, Meißner is becoming a legitimate contender for regular medals.
Moreover, with the likes of Flora Duffy and Taylor Knibb to return to the WTCS, there is greater scope for even more breakaways. Should those breakaways materialise, Meißner could be a dark hose for a top-5 in the overall Series this year.
Four nations fill the women’s top-8
On the note of the front of the field, four countries filled the top-8 positions in the women’s field.
Two Brits (Potter and Coldwell), two Americans (Spivey and Rappaport), two Germans (Meißner and Eim) and two French athletes (Beaugrand and Lombardi) populated the front of the field. Germany also had a third women in the top-10 through Lisa Tertsch.
As such, the balance of power in the women’s field appears to be clearly set with those four countries ahead of the rest. While there is definitely a growing depth to the field in both the men’s and women’s races, it is telling that the traditional powerhouses remain at the vanguard.
Going forward, the battle between the four in the Mixed Team Relay could be epic.
Pearson and Rider waylaid by sickness
Prior to the race, we identified Morgan Pearson as a dark horse for a medal. Last time out, he pieced together a sublime display to win a silver medal upon his return to the WTCS.
However, it was not to be this time out in Abu Dhabi.
Sickness ended Pearson’s day before it even began. So, too, did it for Pearson’s team mate, Seth Rider.
Both will be looking to recover quickly and ready themselves for the next WTCS outing in Yokohama. With competition tight to secure their positions in the top-30 of the Olympic qualification rankings, they will need a full complement of races to ensure America can send three men to Paris next year.
Rachel Klamer’s hamstrings
Rachel Klamer won WTCS Abu Dhabi back in 2018 and has been a stalwart on the circuit for years.
However, she ended her 2022 early after hamstring trouble blighted the latter half of her season. Unfortunately, that issue has not subsided. A recent MRI showed a partial tear of her hamstring and has caused a number of problems. She noted that the tear itself won’t heal in the short term so her focus is on strengthening the muscle around it to compensate.
Moreover she has elected to continue racing.
In Abu Dhabi, Klamer ended up in 39th place. After a minor wobble on the bike, she made it into T2 with the main pack. On the run, she did not quite have the speed but had a positive showing nonetheless.
Surgery on the hamstring is not currently on option for Klamer. The recovery window would compromise qualifying for the Paris Olympics which remains her priority.
She is currently on the bubble of qualifying for the Paris Olympics individually. With a strong relay, the Netherlands should also qualify a team and Klamer should be able to race alongside her husband, Richard Murray.
Germany slip in hunt for third male Olympic slot
In January, Thomas Moeller was appointed as the new German head coach. One of his early statements was that he wanted to qualify three men and three women to the Paris Olympics and that the individual would take precedence over the relay.
With that in mind, Johannes Vogel acquired a new level of responsibility. Going into the season, he was ranked 31st in the Olympic qualification rankings. With Lasse Lührs and Jonas Schomburg ranked ahead of him, Vogel just needed to improve his position by a couple of places to secure that third male slot.
While there are other men that could conceivably make it into the top-30 for Germany, Vogel’s proximity made him the best bet.
However, after finishing 49th in Abu Dhabi, Vogel has slipped from 31st to 35th in the rankings.
With the First Period of Qualification ending in May, he will need a big race, realistically at either the New Plymouth World Cup or at WTCS Yokohama, to leapfrog some of the other athletes and put himself in the box seat going into the Second Period.
