We’ve had the swim. We’ve had the bike. Now it’s time for the run.
In this article, we will be evaluating the ten best run performances in triathlon this year. Such a list is by nature subjective. Among the factors that could elevate a performance are the margin of victory, the degree to which an athlete dominated their rivals, and the raw time itself (even if it risks opening the can of worms that is course measurement).
As with the top ten swims and bikes, the Bianca Seregni rule of having one entry per athlete applies, although here could be reclassified as the Cassandre Beaugrand rule. Moreover, an athlete cannot make multiple top-10 performances with the same display. If a particular showing does not appear here (cough-Alex Yee and Beth Potter-cough) it may come up elsewhere.
Anahi Alvarez Corral – Pontevedra World U23 Championships
Alvarez’s 10km in Pontevedra was nothing short of ridonkulous; yes, it was so good we’re willing to use a made-up word to describe it.
With a time of 33:18, she was the fastest woman in the race by 1 minute 39 seconds. The World U23 champion, Selina Klamt, was 2 seconds further back and lost 1 minute 41 seconds to Alvarez which, at that level, is an extraordinary margin for the race winner to lose. Only three women in the race ran under 36 minutes. Additionally, of the 51 finishers in the men’s U23 race Alvarez out-split 25 of them.
Furthermore, Alvarez had the quickest run of any woman in Pontevedra. Beth Potter won the women’s race with a 33:26 split. The run by the Mexican athlete was therefore sensational.
However, due to a poor swim and bike, she was well out of contention before the run started and ended up in 15th place. A similar thing happened as Alvarez ripped another remarkable split at the Americas Championships in Veracruz. On the flip side, she was well-positioned to unleash her run at the Huatulco World Cup, where she took the gold medal.
Any of those performances could have made the top ten but Pontevedra was a special run indeed.
Cassandre Beaugrand – WTCS Cagliari
Like Alvarez, Beaugrand could have had multiple entries in the top ten performances. The pick of the bunch, though, came at WTCS Cagliari.
That day, the French athlete clocked 32:25 for the 10km. The only women that have ever run faster than that in the WTCS are Gwen Jorgensen and Beaugrand herself. It was the fourth fastest WTCS 10km of all time and in raw terms it was the best run of the year.
In addition, Cagliari represented something of a step forward for Beaugrand. Her 4th place finish was, at the time, her best WTCS Olympic distance result. Far from being a decorative performance, her run had a meaningful impact on her season and helped to boost her credentials as a potential race winner at next year’s Olympic Games.
David Castro Fajardo – Madrid European Championships
Castro’s run in Madrid was in many ways the complete performance. The comeback, the composure, the sprint finish. It was a perfect cocktail of ingredients and was a classy way to claim the European title.
In a race that had been converted into a duathlon due to the water conditions, Castro entered the final 10km run with a notable deficit to make up. Up front, Olympic medallist Jonathan Brownlee and Adrien Briffod, who was coming off a big display at WTCS Yokohama, ran clear and led Castro by the best part of half a minute.
Over the first half of the run, the Spanish athlete gradually whittled down the lead. He consolidated 3rd place on the road and seemed set for a medal but he kept pushing. Suddenly the lead pair were within sight. Heading into the final lap, Castro made the juncture and then had to recompose himself.
Briffod fell away from the lead but Brownlee held firm. Over the final lap the pair tested one another but neither could break clear. That was until Castro dropped his devastating final kick. Brownlee had no answer to his speed and Castro sped away to a memorable triumph.
With a field-leading split by 34 seconds and a comeback victory, Castro’s run in Madrid was perfect.
Lisa Tertsch – Bundesliga Düsseldorf
At Bundesliga Düsseldorf, which doubled as the German Championships, Lisa Tertsch detonated the most brutal run of the year.
Heading onto the 5km run, she had almost all of her domestic rivals around her. Among them were Lena Meißner, Marlene Gomez-Göggel, Annika Koch and Anabel Knoll, all of whom are WTCS top-8 finishers; three of them finished in the top-5 at a WTCS race in 2023. The World U23 champion, Selina Klamt was also in the mix.
One by one, Tertsch picked them off until only Klamt remained. What stood out the most was the way in which Tertsch attacked Klamt again and again in the last kilometre. It was nothing short of gladiatorial. Despite the ceaseless blows, Klamt would not relent and her stoic resolve almost earns her a spot in this list. Tertsch, however, was something else.
The only way her performance can really be described is if someone dropped a heavyweight boxer into a ring with someone four weight categories lighter and then watched the heavyweight pummel away. There was no question that Tertsch was going to win the race. The question was purely how much of her punishment could her rivals cope with.
Ultimately, Klamt cracked and Tertsch ran away to claim another Bundesliga win. More than her speed, it was her style that was so gripping.
Pierre Le Corre – WTCS Sunderland
There have been a lot of good sprint finishes in 2023. Gwen Jorgensen versus Rachel Klamer in Karlovy Vary was a highlight while few could forget the epic finale in the men’s race at WTCS Pontevedra. One, however, stands above them all.
Pierre Le Corre’s run at WTCS Sunderland was one for the history books. Like Castro in Madrid, his run involved a comeback and a super sprint. Crucially, it also came in a fascinating context.
Le Corre had never won a WTCS race. His last WTCS medal had come half a dozen years earlier in Stockholm and at the start of the 2023 season he had half a foot out of the door as the possible riches of long distance triathlon tempted him. In Sunderland, however, Le Corre dropped a remarkable run to become the oldest ever first-time WTCS winner.
His run was also eye-catching on its accord as well as for the wider context. At the start of the run, Hayden Wilde had disappeared up the road and seemed a lock for the win. Further back, Le Corre fought to work himself into a medal position. Given his WTCS medal drought, that would have been a great achievement. Yet Le Corre did not stop there.
As Wilde faltered, Le Corre reeled the New Zealander in. However, the reigning world champion, Leo Bergere, had likewise caught Wilde, creating a lead trio. Over the final lap, the French duo broke Wilde and surged into the lead. As they thundered down the hill to the finish, Bergere seemed to hold a slight lead and looked magnificent. Then, on the blue carpet, Le Corre struck at the very last second.
He overtook Bergere in the final centimetres to claim the most dramatic of victories. His split of 14:37 was also the fastest of the day, beating Bergere by 9 seconds.
Considering his age, where he was in his career, his history in the WTCS, the comeback, the drama of the sprint and field-leading split, an extremely convincing case could be made that Pierre Le Corre’s performance in Sunderland was the best run of the year.
Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal – WTCS Yokohama
Everything about Yokohama had been perfect for Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal. The Mexican athlete made the breakaway and rode hard as part of the lead group. After getting her season off to a good start, she already found herself on course for a personal best WTCS finish as the pack arrived in T2.
In the first half of the run, as the likes of Sophie Coldwell, Taylor Knibb and Taylor Spivey sped away, a personal best looked like it would be as good as it got for Tapia. On the second half of the run, though, she began to stir.
She picked off her rivals and passed Knibb and Spivey to move into 2nd place. At that point, Tapia had never won a World Cup medal (although she finished 4th previously in New Plymouth) and had never been in contention for a WTCS medal. She nonetheless ran in fearless style to secure a maiden world-level podium.
The size of the moment could have gotten to her but she overcame the pressure to deliver an outstanding run. Tapia’s display, then, combined perfect pacing with a dash of surprise to create a special moment in Yokohama.
Joao Nuno Batista – Hamburg World Junior Championships
Speaking of moments, there are few bigger in a young athlete’s career than the World Junior Championships. At this year’s race in Hamburg, Joao Nuno Batista produced a magical run to claim the gold medal.
As the final lap of the run arrived, Batista was part of a pack of three, alongside Nils Serre Gehri and Mathis Beaulieu, as they chased down the last man standing from the breakaway, Zalán Hóbor. Although Hóbor desperately tried to hang on, the trio passed him and prepared to carve the medals up between them.
Serre launched the first major attack of the trio but he was soon reeled in. Through the final kilometres, the onlookers were treated to three phenomenal young athletes laying everything on the line. At the crunch moment, Batista stepped up.
He launched an attack and drew a grimace from Serre. Before letting the other two settle, he tried again and this time Beaulieu seemed to falter. It was with the third and final attack that Batista broke his rivals down. He ran away to the line to claim the World Junior title with the fastest run of the field.
Hayden Wilde – WTCS Yokohama
Hayden Wilde ran faster than his effort at WTCS Yokohama. For example, he ripped one of the quickest WTCS runs of all time in a great match-up with Alex Yee in Cagliari. Given how evenly matched Yee and Wilde were in Cagliari, it is hard to actually separate the two in terms of outstanding performances. Wilde also ran in more dramatic circumstances. His comeback attempt while serving a penalty at WTCS Pontevedra brought about some edge-of-seat racing.
His run at WTCS Yokohama, though, was one of the best of the year.
The crucial moment came early on when sliced up the defending world champion, Bergere, having dropped the rest of the field. The abiding memory is how easy it was for Wilde, how his face never changed until the job was done. There was not a single step in Yokohama in which his victory ever truly looked under threat.
His great rival Yee had similar moments, such as in Paris which will be discussed elsewhere. However Wilde’s run in Yokohama was a highlight of the season. Throughout 2023, he encountered a lot of misfortune at races. Yokohama was a bright spot and the run was a moment when you could not help but think that this athlete, on this form, could be the next Olympic champion.
Crisanto Grajales – Weihai World Cup
We love a comeback and Grajales had one of the most exquisite comebacks of the year.
Six years had passed since his last victory or medal on the world level when he stepped onto the start line at the Weihai World Cup. Although he had proven himself as a WTCS medallist (at Yokohama in 2016), it seemed time was against him in his quest to return to the podium.
In Weihai, he found himself in a solid position on the first of fourrun laps in the burning heat. Lasse Nygaard Priester had disappeared up the road and the race for gold seemed over. Yet Grajales kept pushing. As the race unfolded, Grajales moved away from the field and consolidated a place on the podium. With a fantastic third lap, he then caught Priester.
The look on poor Priester’s face as Grajales not only pulled alongside but then pulled away inspired as much sympathy for the German athlete as it did admiration for his Mexican rival. Priester could not hang on over the final couple of kilometres and Grajales powered back to the top of the podium.
His race, then, was a comeback in more ways than one. Most pertinently, he absolutely nailed his run.
Gwen Jorgensen – Valencia World Cup
This is where the Gwen Jorgensen hype train began. (Well, the second one. The original one reached its terminus in Rio de Janeiro back in 2016). At the Valencia World Cup, Jorgensen claimed the first world level win of her comeback in a vintage display.
It was the kind of performance that put a reverse twist on the Terminator; far from being sent from the future, here was an arrival from the past intent on destroying the forces ranged against her. The field, one that included a number of World Cup medallists, simply could not live with her. Over the 10km, Jorgensen clocked 33:37 while only one other woman dipped under the 34 minute barrier.
While the run itself was great, the primary reason it makes the list here is for the gasp it made the rest of the triathlon world take and for the two words it elicited from everyone’s lips. Gwen’s back.
