This year’s women’s U23 World Championships will see a very strong field take to the start line and may be of the most accomplished U23 fields of recent years.
Kate Waugh is the standout athlete. She easily could have started the Senior women’s race in Abu Dhabi and pushed to consolidate a top-20 position in the WTCS Series. Her recent results certainly read like someone that could place in the top-10 in a women’s WTCS field; she came 12th at WTCS Cagliari, 3rd at the Bergen World Cup, 5th at the Pontevedra World Cup and 12th at WTCS Hamburg. On balance, she is probably the most well-rounded athlete in the field.
That does not, however, make her the overwhelming favourite and there are a number of strong athletes that could well win this race.
Leading the way amongst those is Annika Koch. Koch was 3rd at the 2021 U23 World Championships where she narrowly missed out on achieving the best run of the day. For reference, Waugh was 10th that day and ran almost two minutes slower than Koch. A lot can change in a year but Koch has gone from strength to strength since. She came 2nd at the 2021 European Championships and most recently finished 2nd in the Tongyeong World Cup where she had the best bike split on a tough course and the 4th best run.
As if that was not enough, she also won the Huatulco World Cup this year. Koch might just be the best runner in the field and if comes to a foot race off the bike there is a good chance she would get the better of Waugh.
Another threat for the win will be Bianca Seregni. Seregni was 3rd at the Karlovy Vary World Cup in 2021, 3rd at the Huatulco World Cup this year and more recently 2nd at the Karlovy Vary World Cup in September.
In Seregni’s last 10 international races she has missed the top-10 just twice (those results being a 12th in the Arzachena World Cup and 36th in her WTCS debut in Cagliari). That run spanned 5 World Cup top-10s, 3 of which saw her win medals, and a 10th place at WTCS Bermuda.
Most impressively, Seregni destroyed much of the field alongside Flora Duffy in the water at Bermuda. She is one of the best swimmers on the start-list, has shown promising strength on the bike on tough courses like Karlovy Vary and possesses the run speed to challenge at the finish.
Given her past year of racing, expect to see Seregni as one of the first women out of the water. It would be a surprise to see her finish outside the top-10 and a medal is probably a realistic expectation.
Though Waugh, Koch and Seregni will take to the start line as favourites, that does not mean other contenders should be discounted.
Tilly Offord has two European Cup top-10s in Coimbra and Tiszaujvaros in 2022 to her name as well as a 17th place in WTCS Montreal on debut. One issue Offord may face is that she has not raced internationally since mid-July.
Selina Klamt is coming off the back of a very good season with recent World Cup finishes including 17th in Tongyeong and in Bergen and 9th in Karlovy Vary. Before that, she also managed 12th in Arzachena. On the European Cup level, she has been consistent too with 2nd in Tiszaujvaros, 3rd in Caorle and Rzeszów, and 4th in Kitzbuehl. She might not quite have the running speed of her compatriot Koch, but she could definitely threaten the podium.
Beatrice Mallozzi is a tricky athlete to gauge. She was dominant on the Junior circuit, logging 4 European Junior Cup wins, taking the 2019 World and European Junior titles, winning a European Cup in 2019 and topping it all off with a 12th place finish at her first World Cup before even turning 20.
Moreover, towards the end of 2021 she came 11th and 13th in the World Cup races in Haeundae and Tongyeong. A horrible bike crash, however, forced her to essentially start from zero.
Her first race in 2022 came only recently in the Alanya European Cup where she placed 6th with the 3rd best run of the day. Most recently, though, she finished 8th at the Viña del Mar World Cup.
While she does not have the recent body of results that some of her competitors have, all that immense talent from Mallozzi’s Junior days is still there and if it clicks for her on the day she could be a dark horse for the win.
Another strong runner on the start-line will be Anahi Alvarez Corral who came 2nd in the Valencia World Cup with the best run of the day. Earlier this year, she won 2 Americas Cup races in May (in Ixtapa and La Paz) while last autumn she had solid World Cup performances with an 18th in Tongyeong and a 16th in Haeundae.
Most recently, Alvarez Corral placed 12th at the Americas Championships in Uruguay which, as an Olympic distance race, was a great example of the threat she poses. Though she suffered with a challenging swim and bike, she logged the second fastest run of the day, narrowly missing out on the best split. If Alvarez Corral is near the front at the start of the run, or is at least within striking distance of the front, she could contend for at least a medal.
Barbara De Koning has raced a lot this year; over 16 times to be exact across Continental Cups, World Cups, WTCS and the European Championships. That is a hectic schedule for someone in their first year out of the Junior ranks so respect has to be given for simply making it through the season.
As a Junior in 2021 De Koning won a couple of European Junior Cups in Caorle and Olsztyn, then came 11th at U23 World Championships in Edmonton. As would be expected stepping up to the Senior level in 2022, her results have been a little mixed, with her best performance this season coming from a 2nd place at the European Cup Alhandra where she had the best swim and third best run.
A little further down the field, Maria Tomé could contend having come 4th in the European Cup in Quarteira and 5th in the European Cup in Ceuta. Her best performance this season has perhaps been her 11th place at the Munich European Championships, in which she was only once place and a few seconds behind Koch.
Finally Solveig Løvseth will also be a factor. In 2022 Løvseth has raced 4 WTCS races and 3 World Cups, building the experience that may pay off in Abu Dhabi. She is one of the stronger bikers in the field and so could affect how the race pans out by applying pressure to the field on the bike.
We can expect this year’s U23 World Championships to be closely fought and based on form, our money would be on Annika Koch to win. However, it will be incredibly tight between her, Waugh and Seregni and the win could easily go to any one of several athletes.
TriStats Predictions
- Annika Koch
- Bianca Seregni
- Kate Waugh
- Beatrice Mallozzi
- Anahi Alvarez Corral
