On their day, any of at least a dozen men could win a medal in this year’s WTCS. No fewer than eight men won multiple WTCS medals last season alone and, given the right conditions, any of them could challenge for a spot on this year’s overall podium.
Throw in rising stars like Tim Hellwig (already a double WTCS medallist in his career), Csongor Lehmann and Miguel Hidalgo, single medal winners like Antonio Serrat Seoane, Lasse Lührs and Roberto Sanchez Mantecon, and established veterans like Vincent Luis and Jelle Geens and one thing becomes clear. The field is overflowing with talent.
The purpose of this article, though, is not simply to identify who could win medals this season. Instead, the focus is on those athletes that could end the year as world champion.
To that end, there appear to be five primary candidates to discuss.
When it comes to the 2024 WTCS contenders, the obvious place to start is with the reigning world champion. Dorian Coninx stunned the world at last year’s WTCS Final as his gold medal lifted him from 5th in the rankings to 1st. His victory in Pontevedra was the third WTCS win of his career, while he also added a bronze medal at the Paris Test Event last summer. He was therefore the only man to medal in both Paris and Pontevedra.
Consistency was the watchword of Coninx’s season. Whereas everyone else (that had a full quota of scores) missed the top-5 at least once, Coninx was ever-present at the sharp end of the race. As a result, he was able to deliver upon the immense promise that he had shown so often previously. Assuming he maintains the same levels in 2024, Coninx will be a tough opponent for anyone to beat over the course of the Series.
It is a similar story with Coninx’s teammate, Leo Bergere. Bergere has won the most WTCS medals since Tokyo (with nine) and was Coninx’s predecessor as world champion. Like Coninx, Bergere claimed his title with a dramatic victory at the WTCS Final (in Abu Dhabi) and he combines race-winning ability with remarkable consistency.
Almost always in the mix for the podium, the sight of Bergere towards the front will likely be a common one this year.
If Bergere has won the most medals, we cannot ignore the man that has claimed the most WTCS wins since Tokyo. Alex Yee has six victories in the Series in the past two seasons to his name. Among them, his triumph at the Paris Test Event stands out as his zenith.
Yee is on balance the best runner in the field, having proven it time and again over the past few years. However, he came unstuck at the 2023 Final just as he did at the 2022 Final. He is a phenomenal racer, but can he hold it together for an entire season?
The same question plagues Hayden Wilde. Wilde has recorded four WTCS wins since Tokyo and is one of the best in the business. He landed on the overall WTCS podium in both 2022 and 2023 – the only other man to do so was Bergere – and is possibly the man best placed to take down Yee in a running race.
Wilde and Yee essentially sit in the same boat insofar that they have been so good for so much of this Olympic cycle. Moreover, they have each been so close to winning the world title. On talent alone, it should be a matter of time before one of them seals a WTCS title.
At the same time, Olympic glory could define their season and so their attention may not lie fully with the WTCS.
Vasco Vilaca is the fifth of the candidates that could win the world title. But for illness, he could have potentially been the man to stun Yee and Wilde in Pontevedra, rather than Coninx. Still, Vilaca ended 2023 with four WTCS medals, the joint most of any man, and confirmed his arrival at the top level.
Vilaca is still missing a WTCS win from his ledger which does make him somewhat of an outside shot at the overall title. Equally, the examples of Coninx and Bergere show that he only has to win once (realistically at the WTCS Final) to make his world title aspirations come true, so long as he maintains his tremendous levels across the season.
Meanwhile, both Pierre Le Corre and Matthew Hauser won WTCS races last year and could produce something special in 2024. They therefore sit in a slightly different position to Vilaca. Neither, though, have yet really been in the race for the world title and so do not have the relevant experience to fall back upon. As a result, Le Corre and Hauser could well win the world title, but at this moment they are a little more on the fringes.
Likewise, Manoel Messias, a double WTCS medallist last year, or Kristian Blummenfelt, the 2021 Olympic and world champion, could be ones to watch. Neither, though, have shown the capacity to deliver across a whole season in recent times.
The men’s WTCS is therefore shaping up to be one of the most stacked in recent history. The five world title contenders from 2023 will all be back to take a shot at the 2024 title and any one of them could come out on top.
