The 2023 season witnessed the fastest men’s Olympic distance run split in WTCS history. As if that was not enough, the second fastest run split ever was also recorded.
After Alex Yee joined the sub-29 minute club in 2022, there were two further splits under the barrier this year. In total, there were three new entries in the all time rankings. Read on to find out how the latest all time rankings look.
Olympic distance
After scaring the record in 2022, Alex Yee is now the fastest runner in WTCS history. He split a phenomenal 28:31 at WTCS Cagliari on his way to victory.
At the same race, Hayden Wilde inserted himself at number two in the all time rankings. He clocked 28:35 as he settled for silver. In a way, Wilde can take heart from the fact that it took the fastest split in WTCS history to beat him in Cagliari.
Alistair Brownlee’s 28:43 from London in 2009 has therefore been relegated to the third quickest time ever. A year ago Brownlee had two top-10 splits although now he is done to one. Yee’s 2022 entry – a 28:50 in Yokohama – now takes fourth overall. Stefan Justus (28:54) and Mario Mola (28:59) are then the final men to have broken through the 29 minute barrier in a WTCS race.
Yee pops up again in the all time rankings, taking a third slot in the top-7. He clocked 29:00 at the Paris Test Event. Given he relaxed into the finish after obliterating the field earlier in the run, he could have gone quicker (this, though, is a truism that covers made race-winning run splits).
On the note of running through to the finish, one of the reasons WTCS Cagliari 2023 was so fast is that Yee and Wilde pushed one another every step of the way. Both are prone to early celebrations and so otherwise do not always push at full capacity for the entire run. In Cagliari that was different. Whereas Yee had sewn up victory in Paris with over 2km to go, he had to fight for every metre on the last lap in Cagliari.
Notwithstanding that course measurements may be a factor, the differing race dynamics go a long way in dictating the best splits.
After Yee’s new entry, the final three splits cluster around the 29 minute mark. Sebastian Rank (29:01) and Javier Gomez Noya (29:02) maintain their places while Wilde’s 2022 Yokohama split of 29:03 now rounds out the top-10.
On the 2023 front, Leo Bergere had the fourth fastest split of the WTCS season. He clocked 29:11 in Cagliari and so was not far from making the all time top-10.
Sprint distance
In contrast to the Olympic distance splits, there was no change to the Sprint distance record book.
Matthew Hauser had the fastest split of the year with the 14:23 he clocked en route to victory in Montreal. However, the tenth fastest split ever (the joint ninth fastest in reality) remains the 14:07 shared by Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde. Hauser’s mark was thus a little off the top-10 club.
Wilde’s 14:07 came in 2022 in Hamburg and was the only new Sprint distance entry of last season.
One reason for the lack of fast splits this year could be the courses. Equally, it could be influenced by the timing of races and their attendance. Abu Dhabi was the first race of the 2023 WTCS season while Montreal was skipped by the likes of Yee and Wilde. The third Sprint distance WTCS race also saw some slower times, perhaps due to the course.
As yet, then, no one has touched the incredible 13:55 split recorded by Mario Mola at WTCS Hamburg in 2015. Mola also clocked 13:59 in Hamburg in 2018, making him the sole man with two sub-14 minute efforts.
Javier Gomez Noya has the only other sub-14 minute split with an effort of 13:59 from WTCS Stockholm in 2012.
Richard Murray and Jonathan Brownlee are tied for seventh in the standings – after further Mola entries – with 14:05 splits, both of which came from 2012. As previously mentioned, Yee and Wilde close out the top-10 with their respective 14:07 splits.
