Fourteen World Cups over eight months: the 2023 World Triathlon calendar has offered precious little respite for the athletes chasing points around the globe.
Throughout the array of racing, there have been a multitude of bright spots, of athletes that have had the joy of winning their first ever World Cup medals. Some of the athletes were in the early chapters of their careers. Some were towards the end. What united them was the sense of achievement, the validation of the years of hard work and sacrifice.
Any world level medal is an achievement. The first one, though, will always be particularly special.
In this article, we will recall the first-time World Cup medallists in 2023. Some races winners, Manoel Messias, Pierre Le Corre, Gwen Jorgensen and Katie Zaferes had won World Cups before. As a fun fact, Jorgensen and Zaferes won the New Plymouth World Cup in consecutive years, in 2016 an 2017, respectively.
Moreover, athletes such as Miguel Hidalgo, Takumi Hojo, Nina Eim and Bianca Seregni had already won medals before memorably earning their first World Cup wins this season. As commendable as their first wins were, here the focus is on the first medal of any colour.
At only two World Cups did a new face not step onto the podium for the first time and the run of success started at the first event of the year.
At the New Plymouth World Cup, back in March, Solveig Løvseth produced a breakthrough performance as she claimed 3rd place. The bike proved a vital part of Løvseth’s race in New Plymouth as she showed the kind of strength that has become the now-famed hallmark of the Norwegian team.
Prior to New Plymouth, her best World Cup result stood at a 12th place achieved in Arzachena in 2021.
Later in the year, Løvseth built upon her maiden medal with further strong showings. She would add the European Games title and a 5th place finish at the Tiszaujvaros World Cup.
At the next World Cup, nearly three months later in Huatulco, Mercedes Romero Orozco likewise claimed a first medal. Like Løvseth, Romero finished 3rd. While the headlines went to her compatriot Anahi Alvarez Corral taking the win in front of home crowds and attention went to Gwen Jorgensen’s first world level medal of her comeback, Romero’s medal was not be overlooked.
Her previous best had been a 12th place achieved in Huatulco in 2021. In 2023, she improved upon that with a classy run and in doing so put two Mexican women on the podium.
Huatulco was also the location of the first new male medallist of the circuit.
Aram Michell Peñaflor Moysen had previously recorded a best World Cup finish of 4th in Tongyeong in 2022. As such, he had been knocking on the door of a first medal.
In Huatulco, he made the step up. Like Romero, he finished 3rd as he battled the likes of David Castro Fajardo, the European champion, and Tyler Mislawchuk, a previous winner in Huatulco, all the way to the line. Peñaflor’s medal also opened the floodgates. He would later add a silver medal in Chengdu and a bronze medal in Vina del Mar and therefore ended the season with the joint-most World Cup medals of any male athlete.
Tiszaujvaros saw another new winner at the third World Cup of the season. In a nail-biting finish, Noelia Juan almost won the race yet was denied by a charging Tilda Månsson in the final centimetres.
Although Juan had to settle for the silver medal after the gold had been so close, she could nonetheless celebrate a maiden medal. Furthermore, Juan was the first new medallist of 2023 to take silver instead of bronze. With a previous best of 6th from Pontevedra in 2022, she had been fairly close to a medal hitherto.
In 2023, she found a new level of consistency. Another silver medal followed in Tangier while she added finishes of 4th in Valencia and 5th in Rome.
The next new medallists would come at the Yeongdo World Cup where two athletes matched Juan’s silver medal.
In the men’s race, Max Stapley claimed his first international medal in British colours, a little over two months after completing his switch of sporting nationality. Stapley was at the heart of the breakaway in the men’s race in Yeongdo and helped to keep the group clear of the chase pack.
Although he could not get the better of race winner Takumi Hojo in the end, he nevertheless held off several notable names, including World Cup medallist Valentin Wernz. Like Juan, 6th place represented Stapley’s previous World Cup best. He achieved that in Haeundae in 2021.
In the women’s race, Romana Gajdošová also powered to 2nd place. Yeongdo represented a big step up for the Slovakian athlete as her previous best had been a 9th place achieved in Sarasota back in 2017. After six long years, her persistence and efforts were finally rewarded as she not only returned to a World Cup top-10 but made it all the way to the podium.
Later in the year, Gajdošová popped up in another top-10 as she finished 7th at the Weihai World Cup.
Finishing just behind Gajdošová in Yeongdo was Erica Hawley. The athlete from Bermuda had stormed to her first ever international win a few weeks earlier as she won the Montreal Americas Cup. In Yeongdo, she carried that form forwards as she claimed 3rd place.
Hawley therefore improved upon her 6th place at the 2022 Vina del Mar World Cup and showed that there will be plenty of life in Bermudan triathlon after Flora Duffy’s retirement.
The Weihai World Cup followed and Makoto Odakura added another new podium with his silver medal. He would overhaul the race leader Lasse Nygaard Priester on the final lap of the run however the eventual winner, Crisanto Grajales, proved too strong over the final lap.
Later in the year Odakura would finish 5th in Chengdu, which also surpassed his previous best of 6th in Miyazaki. Still, as September arrived, no athlete had yet made their first World Cup medal a golden one.
That changed in Valencia.
In a barnstorming performance, David Cantero del Campo out-duelled Priester to take a stunning victory. In only the first year out of the Junior ranks, to call Cantero’s win a surprise is a slight understatement.
He proved that it was no fluke, though, as he added a silver medal in Tangier a month later.
Despite his age, perhaps Cantero’s success should have been a little more expected. After all, he had finished 5th in Huatulco earlier in the year and 13th in Vina del Mar in 2022. Still, the poise he showed on the final lap of the run (after whipping up the crowd) belied his years and suggested that he could grow into a special athlete indeed.
On the other end of the sporting scale, Valencia saw the oldest first time medallist on the World Cup scene as Michele Sarzilla finished 3rd. In his mid-30s, the Italian athlete has continued to improve and finally made the jump from his previous best of 4th, set in Tongyeong in 2021.
If Cantero served as inspiration to the youngsters, Sarzilla was the perfect example to the late-bloomers or late arrivals in the sport.
The theme of tenacity (as exhibited by Sarzilla) continued at the next World Cup in Karlovy Vary as Márk Dévay and Jonas Schomburg took their first World Cup medals.
Both had been fixtures of the world stage for years. Both had also come painfully close to a medal before. Dévay had finished 4th in Arzachena in 22 while Schomburg finished 4th in Lisbon in 2021.
Prior to the race, Dévay had also spoken of his deep desire to win a World Cup medal after a previous bad experience following a comment made by an official regarding his lack of medals.
In Karlovy Vary, Dévay put things right as he won the silver medal. Right behind him, Schomburg took the bronze. After years of banging on the door, they had finally broken through and were on a world level podium.
The Rome World Cup saw three new medallists in the form of Arnaud Mengal, Simon Henseleit and Cathia Schär.
Mengal took 2nd place after running Vasco Vilaca close for the win. Indeed, he even shared the fastest run split of the day with Vilaca. Prior to Rome, Mengal’s best result had been an 8th place in Valencia in 2022. As such, he made quite a leap in the Italian capital.
Henseleit’s bronze medal was not the biggest surprise given he had won the World U23 Championships only a fortnight earlier. Moreover, the German athlete had finished 5th in Karlovy Vary in September. Before then, though, his best was an 11th place in Pontevedra in the summer of 2022. This autumn, then, Henseleit certainly found another gear.
Schär also won bronze in the women’s race. A 6th place at the 2022 Bergen World Cup stood as her previous best. After winning bronze at the European Championships in Madrid and finishing 4th at the World U23 Championships, though, the Swiss athlete’s success was no major surprise.
While New Plymouth seemed to have faded far into the distance in the rearview mirror by this point of the year, the World Cups continued to come thick and fast. In the middle of October, the Chengdu and Brasilia World Cups took place on the same weekend as the races went into overdrive.
In Chengdu, Tim Hellwig sped to victory and became the second athlete of the year to make a gold medal his first medal. In a unique twist, Hellwig was the first new medallist to have already earned a WTCS medal beforehand. More interestingly still, Hellwig actually won a WTCS race (in Hamburg in 2021) before he medalled in a World Cup.
His form in Chengdu was also no surprise after he won a silver medal at WTCS Pontevedra. Nevertheless, on the World Cup stage, one would have had to look all the way back to Arzachena in 2020 (where he finished 7th) to find Hellwig’s previous best World Cup result.
On the other side of the world, two more athletes won their first medals.
After matching his best result of 6th in Rome, Charles Paquet improved to 3rd in Brasilia. Before 2023, Paquet had also finished 6th in Karlovy Vary in 2021. As it happens, he almost matched that on the WTCS scene this year as he finished 7th in Montreal.
In the women’s race, Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal also finished 3rd. Like Hellwig, Tapia had the curious distinction of having medalled in the WTCS before she did so in a World Cup; she flew to the silver medal at WTCS Yokohama in May.
To be fair, Tapia finished 4th in New Plymouth at the start of the year and was narrowly beaten to bronze by Løvseth. In addition, she had finished 5th in Tongyeong in 2022, so she had been close to a World Cup medal before.
Either way, it remained the case that her maiden WTCS medal came before her first World Cup medal, making her part of a slightly unusual club.
At the next World Cup, in Tongyeong, Tereza Zimovjanova made it onto the podium for the first time, winning the bronze medal. She had logged a best ever result of 5th in Chengdu and clearly felt in great shape.
Throughout the run in Tongyeong, Zimovjanova threw down the gauntlet to Yuko Takahashi and Gwen Jorgensen as the three women fought for the win. Although she did not have the finish to stay in touch for the win, Zimovjanova nevertheless produced a wonderful display.
She technically won another medal in Vina del Mar (where she had finished 6th in 2022) by finishing 2nd behind Katie Zaferes. However, both Zaferes and Zimovjanova were part of the unlucky quartet to be disqualified at the race. No one, however, could take Zimovjanova’s Tongyeong medal away from her and it will stand as huge moment in her career.
Miyazaki was then the final World Cup to see new faces on the podium. No fewer than three athletes made it into the medals for the first time.
Jeanne Lehair took 3rd place in the women’s race. In 2022 Lehair had finished 4th in Arzachena however her 2023 WTCS form had been on another level altogether.
She finished 4th in Montreal and 5th in Cagliari and showed herself to be one of the best runners in the sport. While she could not overcome Bianca Seregni or Gwen Jorgensen in Japan, a first World Cup medal was a great way for Lehair to cap a breakout season.
Meanwhile, in the men’s race Hugo Milner made a massive breakthrough as he claimed his first World Cup win. Previously, his best stood at the 10th place he had achieved in Tiszaujvaros in July. Like Hellwig and Cantero, he was part of a select group of athletes to make their first medals a golden one.
The key with Milner was that he had been the fastest runner at two of his previous World Cups. When he ripped the fastest run of the day in Miyazaki, then, this time he would not be denied.
Right behind him, Dylan McCullough finished 2nd. At the start of the year, McCullough had finished 4th in New Plymouth and 4th in Tongyeong before that. He had therefore been close to a World Cup podium.
In Miyazaki, a gutsy performance, in which he went for broke and attacked at the midpoint on the run, finally helped him onto the podium.
Tangier and Vina del Mar were the only races without new medallists. That being said, Juan and Cantero medalled in Tangier after winning a maiden medal earlier in the year while Peñaflor did the same in Vina del Mar.
Across the season, out of 84 possible World Cup medals, 22 were won by new faces. Over a quarter of the medals won thus went to new athletes.
After a year packed full of breakthrough moments, we can only hope that 2024 will have something similar in store.
