Debuts
As was case at WTCS Yokohama, there was only one debutant at WTCS Cagliari. Making her first start in the Series was Australian athlete Ellie Hoitink.
Hoitink claimed the Oceania title over the Olympic distance earlier in the season, her first international win, and she was among the leading women from the continent in Cagliari. Only World Cup winners Sophie Linn (20th) and Nicole Van Der Kaay (27th) surpassed Hoitink’s finish of 29th. With Linn being the only Australian woman to beat Hoitink in Cagliari too, the latter may have enhanced her Olympic prospects.
Although Hoitink lost ground in the water, clocking 19:45 which put her the best part of 30-45 seconds behind those in the lead group, she produced a solid run split of 34:26 to salvage her day. Finishing in the top-30 on debut in the WTCS is not always a given and plenty of names failed to do so in 2023. In general, then, Hoitink had a very solid start to her career in the Series and may soon push for a first top-20.
Personal bests
There has been something in the water in this year’s WTCS as both races have yielded rises on the podium with athletes putting their hands up for an Olympic medal. Lisa Tertsch was one such athlete in Cagliari as she made her second ever visit to the podium and claimed her first silver medal in the Series. A field-leading run split of 33:08 (after Tertsch took the fastest split in Yokohama too) went a long way to boosting Tertsch’s hopes. Given how well she has run in 2024, it will be hard to look past her in Paris.
Roskana Slupek continued her blinding run of form as she entered the top-20 of a WTCS race for the first time. Since coming back from her injury-hit 2023, the Polish athlete has thrived on the Continental Cup level and then the World Cup level. In the latter, she finished 6th in Wollongong, 3rd in Chengdu and 4th in Samarkand. In Cagliari, though, the question remained as to whether she would be able to deliver at the highest level.
A confident performance signalled that Slupek’s rise seems set to continue as she raced in the lead pack throughout the event. While she could not find a way past the likes of Taylor Spivey and Djenyfer Arnold at the end, it speaks volumes of Slupek’s newfound level that she is in competition with such athletes.
Zuzuna Michalickova completed the female personal bests in 33rd as she nearly completed a remarkable rise of her own into Olympic qualification. Entering the weekend, she sat a handful of places behind Petra Kurikova in the Olympic rankings and threatened to overtake her. While the young Slovakian athlete managed to log a PB when it counted, it ultimately was not enough. Nevertheless, her form of late has shown that she will no doubt continue to advance at the world level.
The improvements in the medal sphere continued in the men’s race as Csongor Lehmann took a maiden podium finish. Previously, he had never placed in the top-5 and so it was initially a slight shock that he was the only one to strike out behind Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde on the run. A brave performance nonetheless saw Lehmann hold on.
As a multiple World Cup winner and the 2021 World U23 champion, it feels like Lehmann’s first medal has been coming. Now the key question is how many more he will win this season.
Vetle Bergsvik Thorn completed the same manic May of racing WTCS Yokohama, the Olympic relay qualifier in Huatulco and WTCS Cagliari as Lehmann. Like his Hungarian counterpart, the string of races paid off as Thorn logged a best WTCS finish. He threatened to overhaul Lehmann in the later stages of the run but either way had a remarkable day out in Sardinia. Most importantly, Thorn’s result is the best Olympic distance performance by any Norwegian man since late 2021. All of a sudden, he may be the man to beat from the country in Paris.
Ricardo Batista was another to chase after Lehmann and he was denied 4th place by Thorn by a mere second. Before the start of the season, we suggested Cagliari could be a course that would suit Batista’s talents and it came to pass as he thrived on the fast circuit. He took home the second fastest bike split of the men’s field and showed that, after Vasco Vilaca, Portugal have another rising force to reckon with.
One of the most consequential personal bests came from Alberto Gonzalez Garcia. The Spanish athlete took 11th after setting his previous best of 17th in Yokohama (before 2024 his best stood at 26th). As a result of Gonzalez’s recent rise, he has climbed into the top-30 of the Olympic rankings and earned Spain a third male slot at the Paris Olympics. With a World Cup win and back-to-back WTCS personal bests, he seems a shoo-in to take the third slot on the Spanish Olympic team.
Hugo Milner was the only athlete to make a debut in Yokohama and his subsequent rise in Cagliari should offer hope to Hoitink. Having snuck into the top-40 in Japan, Milner blasted into the top-15 with the third fastest run split of the field. Like Tertsch, Milner qualified for the 2023 European Cross Country Championships and his running is hardly a secret weapon any longer. Once he acquires a little more power on the bike (the opening lap is where he struggled yesterday) and develops a consistent swim, he might be the only man capable of beating Alex Yee over 10km (a case Hayden Wilde would dispute but has not yet disproven).
Finally, Nicola Azzano was the top Italian man in Cagliari as he recorded a personal best finish of 25th. That put him two places ahead of Michele Sarzilla and may give the Italian selectors something to think about when it comes to finalising the Olympic team. Azzano ends the Olympic qualification window as the third ranked Italian man with only two slots available. Considering his personal best, though, a case can certainly be made that he is progressing in the right direction.
