Cassandre Beaugrand drew first blood at the Super League Triathlon championship series, winning in London this weekend. Bahrain Victorious 13 teammate Georgia Taylor-Brown kept her title defense in play with a third-place finish, while Tyler Mislawchuk finished inside the men’s Top 5 in fourth.
These strong finishes as well as excellent performances across swim, bike, and run also racked up point bonuses to put the Bahrain Victorious Scorpions in first place on the team leaderboard with 100 points and a clear 24-point lead ahead of their closest rival, the SLT Sharks. The top team at the end of the series wins $120,000 to be split among its members, and the Scorpions surely have their eyes on that prize.
Mixed relay world champion Beaugrand and Commonwealth Games champion Taylor-Brown showed their supersprint prowess across the Triple Mix format, which showcases three stages of swimming 300 metres, cycling four kilometres, and running two kilometres in different orders, with only a two-minute break between Stage 1 and 2 and a pursuit start for Stage 3.
In Stage 1, Beaugrand led out of the swim with fellow Scorpions Emma Jeffcoat and Taylor-Brown in tow and rode with the lead pack, but it was Taylor-Brown who ran down the Stage 1 win. For Stage 2’s run-bike-swim, Beaugrand again set the pace from the gun and stayed in the mix to the concluding swim where Taylor Spivey of the SLT Rhinos just edged her out to gain pole position for Stage 3.
The final stage began with a pursuit start running through transition to their bicycles, which Spivey used to lead the race solo for two of four laps. But Beaugrand and Taylor-Brown had obliterated the advantage halfway through the bike leg, and all three as well as Sophie Coldwell of the SLT Cheetahs headed into the swim leg together. While Spivey exited the water first, Beaugrand put on the afterburners to clinch the win with two seconds to spare. Taylor-Brown bookended the podium 18 seconds back in third. Beaugrand claims the first $20,000 winner’s paycheck of the series, while Taylor-Brown comes away with $10,000.
“Racing here in London was amazing and it was like the crowd was on fire,” said Beaugrand. “I gave it everything I could and I was able to run my best today.”
In the men’s race, Mislawchuk led the first lap of the Stage 1 run and finished fifth, slipped at the start of Stage 2 but recovered to ride with the chasers and finish in 7th just behind the Cheetahs’ Jonathan Brownlee. He would improve on that finish in Stage 3, outsprinting Brownlee for the chocolate medal and $1,000 more in prize money.
