Swim
In the women’s race, Vittoria Lopes picked up where she left off in Cagliari and clocked the fastest swim. Her time of 8:48 was super fast; even if the course appeared to be a tad short, it was a real show of speed from the Brazilian.
Lena Meißner was next out in 8:50. After fast swims at WTCS Abu Dhabi in 2022 and 2023, she made her return to the front of the race after a spell out with injury. Meißner’s swim has really found a new level over the last nine months or so and she has become one of the strongest among the field in the first discipline.
Cognizant of her impending penalty in T1, Taylor Knibb took out the swim hard. Her place in the top-3 splits (with 8:52) should not surprise, though. She took the exact same spot in Yokohama. The rest of the field should be wary going forward. Without the 10 second penalty, Knibb may have broken away much earlier than she did and taken advantage of the disorganisation out of T1. Over the rest of the season, Knibb’s feet might be the best to swim behind.
Natalie Van Coevorden had a fantastic swim, hitting 8:53, to come out of the water in 4th place. It has been a while since the Australian appeared so high in the water and is a promising sign. If she can keep up her Montreal level, she will likely make a few breakaways going forward.
Summer Rappaport maintained her consistency in the water this year. She and Djenyfer Arnold recorded the same time of 8:54.
Thereafter, Katie Zaferes, Kate Waugh and Kirsten Kasper all hit 8:56 and Lizeth Rueda Santos rounded out the top-10 splits with a time of 8:57.
If the women’s swim had been fast, the men took it to another level.
Race winner Matthew Hauser established himself at the head of the race from the get-go with a time of 8:02. Kenji Nener had started right beside him on the pontoon and came out 2 seconds later in 8:04.
Nicolo Strada also hit 8:04 which helped to set up what would be his best ever finish in the WTCS.
Tim Hellwig, Chase McQueen and Jamie Riddle followed in 8:06. A small gap then appeared before Jonas Schomburg and Martin Demuth emerged in 8:09. Then David Castro Fajardo exited.
The winner of the European Championships and the Huatulco World Cup, Castro looked to have set up his race perfectly with a split of 8:10. However, he proceeded to go backwards on the bike. As a result, he slid to 33rd overall despite a fast run to cap off his race. At the World Cup level, Castro’s cycling has proven to be strong enough. However, while he is a fast swimmer at the WTCS level, his cycling has not always fired.
It was a similar story at the WTCS Final in 2022 as he made the front group out of the water only to be dropped on the first bike lap. If he is to contend for medals (as he has the talent to do so), Castro will need to find a way to bolster his cycling.
Marten Van Riel was the tenth fastest swimmer in 8:11.
Bike
A large contribution towards Cathia Schär’s personal best finish of 12th in Montreal came from her field-leading bike split. Her time of 30:00 was over 10 seconds better than the next quickest woman which was no mean feat considering the all-out attack Knibb launched at the front.
Cycling has long been a strength of Schär’s. For example, at WTCS Bermuda in 2022 she had one of the best bike splits over the hardest course of the season. A year on from making her debut in the Series, the Swiss athlete is increasingly becoming a major presence on two wheels.
Erica Ackerlund had the next best split with a time of 30:11. At any other race, her 21st place would have represented a solid result. The problem for Ackerlund is that five American women finished ahead of her. With encouraging signs on the bike, Ackerlund has a great shot of making the Olympic Games next year. More than most, though, her road will be crowded with challengers.
Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto, Noelia Juan and Dominika Jamnicky all recorded splits of 30:13 as they recovered from time lost in the water to ride into the front pack. Similarly Jeanne Lehair clocked 30:14 and Beth Potter hit 30:17 to make up time lost in the swim.
The next best splits came away from the two-woman breakaway. Knibb completed the course in 30:18 while Rappaport was close behind in 30:21. Knibb and Rappaport were the only women in the top-10 splits to get within 20 seconds of the fastest swimmer, indicating that the bulk of the quick splits came from athletes joining the front pack.
Claire Michel completed the top-10 with a time of 30:23.
As the men’s field came together in one big pack, the top cyclists were the slowest swimmers. Indeed, four of the top-6 bike splits came from men with swim splits among the ten slowest in the field.
Kristian Blummenfelt and Gustav Iden led the way with times of 28:32 as they rode up to the main pack. Roberto Sanchez Mantecon and Itamar Eshed were close behind in 28:33.
Jawad Abdelmoula was the next quickest with a time of 28:34, while Jacob Birtwhistle and Kyle Smith produced splits of 28:35.
The bronze medallist, Jelle Geens, deployed his classic trick of using a big bike split to make up time and places on the bike before launching himself onto the podium with his run. At the end of last year, he successfully used the strategy to win a medal at the WTCS Final and also utitlised it to good effect on his way to the win at WTCS Abu Dhabi in 2021. In Montreal, his split was 28:40.
By his high standards, Dylan McCullough a bad swim. Normally more of a front pack guy, he emerged in 8:23, 21 seconds down on Hauser. Nevertheless, he used a 28:43 bike split to recover and was an important part in bringing the front pack together after it split.
Jumpei Furuya was the final man in the top-10 with a 28:43.
Run
The gold and silver medallists, Beth Potter and Leonie Periault, tied for the fastest run split with 16:08. Neither had ever run so quickly in the Series before and (notwithstanding the frequent unreliability of course measurements) both were only 8 seconds away from making the top-10 all-time 5km splits in the women’s WTCS.
Seeing as the pair ran the same times, one conclusion could be that Potter’s better T2 (and better positioning into T2) gave her the upper hand. Whereas Potter emerged towards the front of the field, Periault had to make up some ground over the first few hundred metres.
Jeanne Lehair was the next quickest runner with a time of 16:25. Lehair has been on a tear this year, clocking fast splits at WTCS Yokohama and WTCS Cagliari, winning the European title and improving her best WTCS finish seemingly at will. She may have gotten a little carried away at the end of the first lap of the run as she hit the lead and then paid for it. Still, a 4th place was a brilliant achievement and she is heading towards a first podium.
On the note of improvements, Katie Zaferes has made a dramatic rise through the WTCS rankings since her return. She had a quiet day at her first race in Abu Dhabi and was much better in Cagliari. In Montreal, she showed remarkable speed.
Her swimming and cycling have fired often this year, but her running has taken a little more time to come around. That changed in Montreal as she clocked a 16:31 split to take 5th place. Her American rivals will likely look on with at least mild concern at Zaferes’ development.
One American that will be fairly nonplussed is Rappaport. As one of two women with top-10 splits in all three disciplines, Rappaport had an outstanding race to claim the bronze medal. Her run time of 16:35 was considerably faster than her effort in Abu Dhabi earlier in the year (different courses, yes, but the data point is still relevant). Moreover she was relatively quicker compared to the rest of the field than in Abu Dhabi.
After a spell away from the podium, Rappaport has re-inserted herself at the forefront of the conversation over which Americans will make the Olympic team.
Georgia Taylor-Brown’s search for consistency goes on. After winning WTCS Cagliari, she slipped to 7th in Montreal and her run of 16:44 was quite a way off her standard level. When it comes together, like in Cagliari, she is close to unbeatable. Yet that level has been elusive this year.
Taylor Knibb was the second woman alongside Rappaport to log top-10 splits in all three disciplines. Her time of 16:49 showed that her running is coming back around after her foot injury. On the other hand, the gap to the top run splits will likely force her to redouble her efforts to break away prior to the run.
Maria Carolina Velasquez Soto, Taylor Spivey and Zsanett Bragmayer claimed the final spots in the top-10 run splits with times of 16:50, 16:51 and 16:53, respectively.
Hauser completed the double of fastest swim and fastest run in Montreal with a time of 14:23. When an athlete has two of the top splits on the day, odds are they will win the race.
Manoel Messias pushed Hauser close and produced a time of 14:29. Like Periault, he was a little behind out of T2. With slightly better positioning, perhaps he could have conserved a little more energy earlier in the run and kept closer to Hauser at the finish.
The top-10 men were not separated by much as the race came down to a sprint finish.
Tim Hellwig had a strong showing with a 14:37 to go with his fast swim. Conversely, Jelle Geens’ 14:38 accompanied a fast bike split.
Charles Paquet hit a time of 14:39 while Kristian Blummenfelt and Bence Bicsák clocked 14:40 and 14:45, respectively. For Blummenfelt, his run was an impressive show of speed for someone that has not often had a lot of joy over the Sprint distance.
Marten Van Riel and Roberto Sanchez Mantecon both ran times of 14:53 and Kenji Nener completed the top-10 with a 14:55 split.
