The Debut
Yifan Yang was the only athlete to make their debut at WTCS Yokohama. After a great swim in which she led during the first lap, she was dropped from the lead pack on the bike. Two crashes on the bike unfortunately then ended her day prematurely. The first of her crashes also saw her take a bump from Anna Godoy Contreras who had nowhere to go behind Yang.
The fact that Yang got back onto the bike after her first fall showed impressive spirit. As a young athlete, she will no doubt be back and in the mix at future WTCS races.
Personal Bests
The gold and silver medallists in the women’s race, Sophie Coldwell and Rosa Tapia Maria Vidal, had their best ever WTCS finishes. Coldwell makes the PB list again after already doing so in the first WTCS race of the season in Abu Dhabi.
Tapia also scored a best finish in Abu Dhabi. Her improvement has been dramatic to say the least. Prior to this year, her best WTCS finish was a 31st place. In Abu Dhabi she managed to score 16th place and then we saw what happened in Yokohama.
In addition Kate Waugh had a brilliant race as she broke into the top-5 for the first time.
Simon Westermann had the highest personal best finish at WTCS Yokohama. After his promising result, he has firmly put himself amid the Swiss battle for Olympic spots next year.
Dylan McCullough also had a best finish after leading the first lap of the swim in Yokohama. He has proven himself to be a very strong swim-biker. In the coming months, he may have to make the decision whether to try to sharpen his running in search of higher finishes or whether to lean on his strengths and try to capitalise on breakaways.
With his strength in the first two disciplines, he could become a real breakaway merchant.
The Fastest Swims
Márk Dévay did Márk Dévay things in the swim at WTCS Yokohama and led the way. Such is his ability, it is hard not wonder if he is taking the swim a little too lightly. That is not to say he is not trying; rather that he has the ability to stretch the field much more than he did.
There is a case to be made that a calmer swim will allow him to run faster. Yet his swim is so much stronger than his run right now (and may always be like that) that swim-driven breakaways might be his best hope of top-10s and better. If Dévay was to truly unleash his full strength in the swim, it could truly reorder the men’s race.
The women’s field was quite bunched like the men’s but the key difference was that there was enough of a mini-break to allow for a breakaway to take place. You can read more about that here.
Maya Kingma was classy in water and showed that she is nearing her top form after injury shackled her a little in 2022.
One slight surprise was how good Taylor Knibb was in the swim. She often does not get the credit she deserves in the water, in part because her bike is so obviously her strength. Her aquatic abilities are among the best in the women’s WTCS and will put her towards the front of most fields going forward.
The Fastest Bikes
The bike was all about Kristian Blummenfelt as he overcome a 43 second gap out of the water. Similarly, Jelle Geens earned a fast swim by dint of riding through to the main pack after losing time in the water.
In a complete contrast to the men’s field, the fastest cyclists were at the front of the women’s race. Whereas the best male bike splits were achieved by those that had to make up time, the best female splits came from those already in control.
The top-7 bike splits were covered exclusively by the seven women in the breakaway.
As a result the women’s race was a much greater test of all-round ability rather than running speed.
The Fastest Runs
As previously noted, Hayden Wilde would have had the fastest run split had he not opted to milk his celebrations at the end of the race. That should not take away from how well Vasco Vilaca and Matthew Hauser ran.
Both had fantastic splits, on top of brilliant races, and will lining up to take shots at Wilde’s WTCS hopes throughout the year.
This year, the women’s run at WTCS Yokohama was noticeably slower than the 2022 iteration of the race. The weather had a large hand in that, though, as it was harder to be as fast in torrential rain.
The rain seemed to play into the hands of some athletes more than others. Miriam Casillas Garcia was one athlete to note how the cold affected her. By contrast, Sophie Coldwell had one of her best ever run splits. There may be a degree to which a history of training in British weather served her well.
