There have been more outstanding performances this year than can be counted on two hands. (If you can count to more than ten with your fingers, please consult your doctor.) In this article, we will try to whittle down the leading men’s showings of the year into a top ten.
As with the top ten performances that have come before, a couple of factors influence how the list has been produced. For example, an athlete’s performance at one event cannot be included in multiple lists. As such, anyone with a top ten in the swim, bike or run categories shall not be repeated here. In addition, an athlete cannot appear twice within the same list, even if they have multiple worthy performances.
While medals and winning margins and more can be factored into the discussion (and they will be), ultimately the primary aspect that unites the below performances is how they made people sit up and take notice of what was happening before them.
As always, such evaluations are subjective by nature and each entry can be debated in favour of someone else (or a different performance by the same athlete). After all, there is no single metric for determining a great performance. This is also not a ranking of performances, but rather a collection of efforts in no particular order.
Without further ado, then, let’s dive into the final top ten of 2023.
Alex Yee – Paris Olympic Test Event
Imperious in Abu Dhabi. Unstoppable in Cagliari. Yee had his fair share of high points in 2023 but his best day out came with his third win of the season.
His triumph at the Paris Test Event was Yee at his very best. He lost only 20 seconds to the fastest swimmer in the water, putting him in an ideal position to move up the field on the bike, which he duly did. For the subsequent 40km, he rode a mature race, as has been come to be expected.
Then, to cap things off, he delivered one of the best runs of the year. Even while slowing down at the end, he comfortably out-split the field; had he run through to the line his margin of victory would have most likely exceeded half a minute. While the run was unquestionably the high point of the race, it was the way that Yee did not put a foot wrong that stood out. No matter what his rivals hoped to bring to the fight, he simply floated above everything.
All things being equal, if he races like he did at the Test Event at the real thing next summer, he will be the Olympic champion. After such a dominant showing in Paris, the onus is now on his rivals to find a way to beat him in the French capital.
Bradley Course – Port Douglas Oceania Championships
If Yee was the favourite going into the Paris Test Event, the next top performance came from an athlete that was much more of a dark horse.
At the Oceania Championships over the Olympic distance, Bradley Course was not among those expected to make the podium. With World Cup medallists against him, as well as WTCS race winner Jacob Birtwhistle, the youngster appeared to be racing for experience more than anything.
Over the next 101 minutes, the Australian flipped the narrative on its head and stunned the field. At his first international Olympic distance race, he powered to a dramatic victory by 10 seconds. He lost 19 seconds to the leaders in the swim but made up for it with a field-leading bike split. Then, to seal his win, he produced the only sub-30 minute 10km split of the field, showing a remarkable balance of speed and endurance for someone so young.
Beyond the raw performance itself, Course’s display stands out for another reason. Having won the Oceania Junior title earlier in the year, he also accomplished the rare feat of winning the Senior and Junior Continental crown in the same season. As an achievement that is practically unheard of, it stands as one of the best performances of the year.
Ricardo Batista – Balikesir European Championships
Batista was not playing around at the European Super Sprint Championships. A dominant solo breakaway in the second men’s semi-final gave fair warning for what he would try to do in the final. Even with the advance notice, no one could stop him.
In the final, Batista had a good swim. He was slightly slower than his time in the semi-final but nonetheless emerged only 5 seconds back of the leaders. Then, just as he had in the previous round, he dropped the hammer on the bike.
Once again he clocked the fastest bike split of the race as he put the field on the back foot. This time round, he had some company, notably in the guise of Lasse Nygaard Priester. Most of the field, though, were strung out behind as they tried to limit Batista to an advantage of 10 seconds.
When he made it onto the run, Batista then shut the door on any hopes of a comeback. Having blown the race apart on two wheels, he clocked the fastest run of the final too. With the U23 title to go with his Senior win, Batista’s performance was utterly barnstorming.
His final winning margin may have only been 5 seconds (over Priester), but it felt like so much more.
Miguel Hidalgo – Brasilia World Cup
Hidalgo was so close to the perfect race in Brasilia. But for Alessio Crociani out-splitting him by 1 second in the swim, the Brazilian athlete would have clocked the fastest swim, bike and run of the day. Moreover, he would have done so at a home World Cup.
The stars aligned for Hidalgo on what perhaps became the best race of his career to date. On paper, not least given his splits, it would easy to presume that Hidalgo had a comfortable day out in Brasilia. In reality, he brought a healthy amount of drama to proceedings.
A fall in T1 almost jeopardised his race and gave him some early chasing to do on the bike. Later during the run, it seemed Antonio Serrat Seoane had broken Hidalgo only for the Brasilian to come roaring back past the Spaniard with a huge final lap.
Being a maiden World Cup win, the race was a special moment for Hidalgo. That it was in front of a crowd of his compatriots made it sweeter still. Throw in the near-sweep of top splits and the sprinkling of drama throughout and it was a performance that ticked every box.
Csongor Lehmann – Tiszaujvaros World Cup
Speaking of home wins, few have been more convincing that Csongor Lehmann’s effort in Tiszaujvaros. Although he arrived as a World Cup winner, it not was not immediately obvious that he would win the race. There were too many other contenders (including other World Cup winners) for that to be the case.
Lehmann also shouldered a higher burden of expectation than any of his rivals. Tiszaujvaros was a home race and, having won back-to-back European Cups in his home town, Lehmann had a hat-trick in his sights. Even with the pressure of the moment and the challenge of his rivals, Lehmann delivered a flawless performance to ensure his gold medal was never in doubt.
He won his semi-final on the Saturday and then dictated the final on the Sunday. He was not the top performer in any discipline, although he had the third fastest swim and second fastest run.
The most impressive aspect of Lehmann’s win was how assured it looked. At no point did he show a hint of weakness. He did not waver even for a second. Instead, the former World U23 champion stepped up when the level of personal pressure was at its highest.
Matthew Hauser – WTCS Montreal
All wins are special, but some are a little more special than others. More often than not, a win is but a moment, something that captures a particular set of circumstances on a particular day. An athlete might have a good day. An athlete might have a bad day. Beyond that, the results do not reveal too much. Sometimes, though, a win is not actually about the present but rather about the future.
Matthew Hauser’s victory at WTCS Montreal was one such race. Clocking the fastest swim and the fastest run of the field, it was clear that he was the best athlete on the day (as most winners generally are). Such was the way in which he won, though, he crossed a precipice.
His performance in Montreal was a moment that transformed the nebulous promise of a still-young athlete into an expectation. Hauser will probably become world champion in the next few years.
Of course, there are no guarantees in life. The COVID positive that forced Hauser out of the Paris Test Event and compromised the end of his season is testament to that. However, the way in which Hauser won WTCS Montreal is simply impossible to overlook.
It was like watching a Youth or Junior athlete that had undergone a growth spurt before his competitors. No matter what his rivals did, he was simply better. Given the calibre of athlete he made look powerless – including WTCS gold medallists and the reigning Olympic champion – Hauser’s showing was something to be admired.
Vasco Vilaca – Rome World Cup
One of the greatest tests any athlete faces is how they react to profound disappointment. It is how they get back up when knocked down that defines them.
In more ways than one, Vasco Vilaca was knocked down at the WTCS Final in Pontevedra. Although sick, he opted to race with the world championship on the line. When all went wrong for Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde, the path to glory suddenly opened up to him out of T2. All he had to do was piece together the final 10km and the world title would be his.
However, that did not transpire. Instead, Vilaca watched as Dorian Coninx and Leo Bergere ran away from him along with others. As much as the young Portuguese athlete fought, he fell out of the top-10, with Wilde even passing him. His hopes of the world title evaporated and a season that promised so much turned to dust before his eyes.
To add insult to injury, Vilaca lost his place on the overall Series podium. Inflicting further pain was the fact that missing out on the overall podium cost him the first chance to make the Portuguese Olympic team too. He will no doubt make it anyway, though.
After such a painful experience, Vilaca was back on the start line a fortnight later at the Rome World Cup. In a fantastic performance, he claimed his first ever World Cup victory and brushed away the disappointment of Pontevedra.
On its own merit, his display in Rome was a worthy inclusion. When added to the low of only two weeks prior, it showed impressive resolve. Beyond anything else, Vilaca’s race showed a simple truth. It’s not about your best moment. It’s how you get back up from the hard moments that truly counts.
Simon Henseleit – Pontevedra World U23 Championships
After a double European Cup victory, a WTCS personal best in Hamburg and a World Cup personal best in Karlovy Vary (that he would later beat in Rome), Simon Henseleit arrived in Pontevedra as one of the favourites for the win. He had shaken off the broken toe that he suffered in Paris and was ready to stake him claim for the World U23 title.
In Pontevedra, he was a class apart.
A good swim put him in the front pack. Such was his strength on the bike, he enjoyed a mini-break from the lead pack with his compatriot Henry Graf for company. The move did not pay off yet it still showed how confident Henseleit was feeling.
Then, on the run, he put his rivals to the sword.
Whereas some of the other performances listed here have highlighted contextual factors or personal aspects that heightened the sense of achievement, Henseleit’s showing was one in which an athlete simply dominated his rivals. Here was an athlete that had arrived in prime form and was intent upon showing the world exactly what he could do. And he did not disappoint.
Mathis Beaulieu – Sarasota Americas Cup
Beaulieu raised a couple of eyebrows when he opted to race at the Sarasota Americas Cup instead of tackling the North American Junior Championships at the same location. A case could be made for doing either event, but one thing soon became clear. The Canadian Junior would have won no matter the race he had chosen.
His performance in Sarasota was terrific. After losing time to the leaders in the water, he rode up to the front group, making up over 40 seconds, to form a five-man lead pack. His comeback on the bike earned him one of the fastest splits of the day and he rode like the Senior athlete in the group.
Once onto the run, he bided his time as some of his fellow leaders slipped behind. Then he struck. With the fastest run of the day, Beaulieu soared to victory. Even though he was a Junior athlete, it was not his first Americas Cup win. Nevertheless, the way in which he won belied his years and it was little surprise that he went on to add a bronze medal at the World Junior Championships.
In Sarasota, Beaulieu did just about everything right and in doing so provided one of the biggest shocks of the early season.
Dorian Coninx – WTCS Pontevedra
In many respects, Pontevedra was the best race of the season. The topsy-turvy nature of the event, the constant shifts in potential world champion and the drama of the sprint finish combined to create a race that left audiences on tenterhooks for the best part of two hours.
It therefore seems fitting that the man that won the best race of the year should make the top ten performances.
In one fell swoop, Dorian Coninx elevated himself from 5th in the WTCS to 1st, becoming world champion. Rather than any one split defining his race, it was his composure in the most pressured of situations that stood out. It had been over two years since he had won a WTCS race yet now he found himself not only in contention for the win but for the world title. The way he dealt with the size of the moment thus stood out.
It was a day in which everything had to go right for him and Coninx did everything in his power to make sure it did.
