2022 was a remarkable season on several fronts. One thing that really stood out though was the number of women’s running performances that were among the ten fastest in WTCS history.
With that in mind, we wanted to present the best running splits that have ever been logged in the WTCS.
Of course, triathlon is not fundamentally about times. However, that does not make the splits any less interesting.
One thing to clarify too is that not all races are perfectly 10km. Likewise almost all courses are different, with varying profiles and elevations. By the nature of the course, it is unlikely we will ever see an all-time split from WTCS Bermuda. World Triathlon also has strict guidelines on the measurements of a course so even if they are not perfectly 10,000m, they are defined within a tight range.
Olympic Distance
The fastest women’s run split of all time in the WTCS remains Gwen Jorgensen’s 31:41 in Stockholm in 2013. Jorgensen is the only woman to have dipped under the 32 minute mark in a WTCS race and it remains an astonishing feat. With Jorgensen’s return to the WTCS fold now confirmed, it will be interesting to see if the past few years of her focus on running will see her produce similar splits.
Unsurprisingly, Jorgensen also has the second fastest split ever with a 32:15. However this is where things get interesting. This year, Cassandre Beaugrand was only one second away from matching Jorgensen’s second fastest split. After a barnstorming run in Cagliari, Beaugrand might just be the next athlete to threaten the 31 minute mark.
Non Stanford retains 4th place with her brilliant 32:26 from Stockholm in 2013, the year she became World Champion. Close behind is the next 2022 addition.
Flora Duffy has been renowned for her abilities in the swim and on the bike for years. One facet of her abilities that has improved dramatically in the past six years though is her run. She produced a blistering 32:27 split to zoom to victory at WTCS Abu Dhabi this year and take the world title.
After Duffy, we see Jorgensen (again) but then there are further 2022 performances. Georgia Taylor-Brown entered the WTCS top-10 not once but twice this season with outstanding splits from Yokohama (32:45) and Cagliari (32:43). These splits put her in 8th and 10th place all time. An elite runner as a Junior, it is no great surprise to see Taylor-Brown as one of the foremost runners in the sport.
There was almost one other new entrant this year in Beth Potter. A former Olympian in the 10,000m, Potter produced a 32:46 split in Cagliari and was only one second from matching the 10th fastest time in history.
Sprint Distance
In an interesting contrast, there was not a single Sprint distance run split this season that made the all-time top-10.
Cassandre Beaugrand was close with a 16:10 run at WTCS Leeds, which included a 10 seconds penalty. Nevertheless, none of the women managed to break into 15 minute territory. As to be expected, Jorgensen also has the fastest Sprint split with a 15:31 from 2013. To go with that, she also has splits of 15:44, 15:45 and 15:46 (all in Hamburg) to complete the top-4.
Beaugrand, however, is already in the top-5 of all time following her outstanding run in Hamburg in 2018 where she recorded a 15:48. It is therefore well within Beaugrand’s ability to log another sub-16 run and take another place in the top-10.
Two Australians, Erin Densham and Emma Jackson, have the next fastest splits with 15:50 and 15:55 and they are followed by Jorgensen and Vicky Holland who are tied on 15:57.
Jorgensen rounds out the top-10 with a 16:00 from WTCS London in 2015.
After a fierce battle for the world title in 2022, there is a good chance the women’s race continues to get faster in the coming years, particularly as fields continue to get deeper. With that in mind, maybe the top ten run splits will look completely different in the not too distant future.
