Going into the women’s U23 World Championships, it seemed that three women had a shot at taking the world title: Bianca Seregni of Italy, Kate Waugh of Great Britain and Annika Koch of Germany. As the race unfolded, each made decisive moves in one of the disciplines although it was Waugh’s move that won the day.
After a dominant swimming performance at WTCS Bermuda, everyone was well aware of Bianca Seregni’s swimming prowess. She lined up on the right side of the pontoon and quickly built up a commanding lead in the first of the two swim laps. Her split of 19.08 was by far and away the best of the day and most of the women in the WTCS Final later today may struggle to match it. By the time Seregni exited the swim and made her way to T1, she had leads of 36 and 38 seconds over her main rivals Waugh and Koch.
Yifan Yang of China was the closest athlete to Seregni out of the water, a mere 22 seconds down, although she later struggled on the bike.
With such a substantial lead, it briefly appeared that Seregni could have gone on to race alone. However, in the rising Abu Dhabi heat, she made the smart decision to sit up and let the chase pack close the gap.
A front pack of six formed after the end of the first bike lap as Annika Koch, Selina Klamt, Marta Kropko, Kate Waugh and Jessica Fullagar joined Seregni at the front. For the next few laps, the pack rode consistently. Fullagar had a couple of digs off the front without anything really sticking as the group built a lead of a minute over a chase group led by Tanja Neubert and Marta Pintanel Raymundo. After the first half of the bike, it seemed as it the leaders were gearing up for a running race.
Then Fullagar and Waugh attacked. The attack initially looked no different to any of Fullagar’s previous efforts. As she had on most laps, she used an acceleration out of a dead turn to apply pressure and only Waugh went with her. The move seemed coordinated but crucially, the quartet behind looked at one another and no one reacted.
A five second gap quickly formed. And then the gap grew to 19 seconds. And then a little further still.
Koch tried to pick up the pace but received precious little support from her group. With the next group only a minute behind, it was understandable that some in the group were more focused on consolidating a top-5 finish that pushing on to reel in Waugh and Fullagar.
As the British duo built their lead, Koch tried in vain to react and by the end of the last bike lap she was clearly agitated by a perceived lack of effort by the rest of the group.
By the time the British duo made it to T2, Waugh had logged the best bike split of the day in 1:03:57. In the space of a couple of laps, she and Fullagar put over a minute into the quartet in the chase behind.
Waugh quickly dropped Fullagar on the run and settled into an early rhythm. Fullagar had actually ridden as a guide athlete in the visually impaired Para-triathlon race at the Commonwealth Games this year and today demonstrated yet more selfless team-work in service of Waugh. She did not look particularly comfortable on the run but after such a mammoth effort on the bike she had all but locked up a top-10 finish.
However, in the chase group a challenge to Waugh brewed. If the swim belonged to Seregni and the bike to Waugh, then the run belonged to Koch.
She was dominant of the leaders, out-splitting Waugh by 40 seconds with a 34:16 leg. With every run split, the gap to Waugh dwindled and, had there been another lap, she looked as if she would have closed the gap entirely.
However, Koch did not actually have the best run of the day. That went to Anahi Alvarez Corral of Mexico. Alvarez Corral had a day to forget in the swim and by the end of the bike was almost 7 minutes down on Waugh. Her perseverance paid off however as she delivered a monstrous 32:39 run split.
She was over 90 seconds better than the next best runner as she ran through to 15th. If Alvarez Corral can develop her swim and bike, the running speed she possesses is virtually unmatched. In a few years, she could well be the next iteration of a Gwen Jorgenson-type figure that dominates by dint of extraordinary running ability.
As Koch toiled in her hunt for gold, Seregni moved serenely into third. Seregni also out-split Waugh by 15 seconds on the run; in the coming days she and Koch may just wonder if they could have reacted quicker to Waugh’s move on the bike as that is where they lost the race.
Klamt produced a strong running performance to hold on for 4th however Kropko struggled on the run and slipped down to 11th.
Tanja Neubert ran through from the second chase pack with the third best run of the day to move up to 5th place.
Constanza Arpinelli, a silver medallist at the world Junior championships in 2019, ran through from the second group to take 6th.
Fullagar held on for 7th ahead of compatriot Daisy Davies. Marta Pintanel Raymundo and Barbara De Koning rounded out the top 10.
The race promised to be a closely fought battle between three evenly matched athletes and it certainly delivered. It was a tactical masterstroke by Kate Waugh that earned her a first world title and caps off what has been a breakout season for her.
View the full results here.
