Cassandre Beaugrand and Hayden Wilde won the first ever super-sprint world championship at World Triathlon Championship Series Hamburg, bringing in two world titles for Bahrain Victorious 13 over the weekend.
The world title was contested through qualifier and repechage rounds on Friday to determine which 30 male and 30 female athletes would compete in the three-stage final on Saturday. The 10 slowest athletes would then be eliminated in each of the first two stages, leaving only the 10 fastest in the final stage to compete for the podium.
Beaugrand, who won her first World Triathlon Series title in Hamburg in 2018, won her qualifier. In the final the Olympic mixed relay bronze medalist from France once again showed her prowess at super-sprint distance racing: she led out of the swim with the day’s fastest split and finished 7th out of danger of elimination in Stage 1, then logged the fastest swim and speedy transitions to win Stage 2 before unleashing the day’s fastest run in Stage 3 to break the tape 10 seconds clear of the field and take the world title. She also rises 6 spots in the world rankings to break into the Top 10 at #6.
“I think I wanted it so much; I’ve been training so hard for this and just really wanted this one,” she said post-race. “Today my transitions saved me a bit, I’m really happy with that. The 1500m is my strength, I’m very comfortable with it and that distance suited me.”
Wilde started his path to victory in similar fashion, having got through his qualifier comfortably in second. The Olympic bronze medalist from New Zealand won here in Hamburg last year over the sprint distance, but winning the Eliminator format would not be so straightforward. Coming out of the swim in the back of the pack in Stage 1, Wilde worked his way up the field to finish in 12th. It was the same story in Stage 2, but this time he finished 6th to set up for Stage 3 where his strong bike legs kept Kristian Blummenfelt from making good on a breakaway. A fast transition and strong first half of the final run gave him the gap Wilde needed to stay in front and win world championship gold. With this win, he also rises two spots to #2 in the world.
“I had to do some work in that first round and the legs weren’t feeling too good. I was a bit more relaxed in the second out front, but my tactic was always to try and get a couple of seconds swinging round into transition and get away,” he said. “It was a bit of a gamble and I normally fumble a bit in T2. Then it was just keep pushing and keep pushing and got the win. Everyone’s upping their game and starting that race it was always going to be difficult to get it done.”
Wilde also kicked off Team New Zealand’s mixed relay on Sunday, where they ultimately won silver.
Henri Schoeman battled through both qualifier and repechage rounds to line up at the final. Despite being eliminated in Stage 1 it was the most racing the Olympic bronze medalist had done in a while on the WTCS after his injury comeback earlier this year, and allowed the South African to climb the world rankings by one spot.
