Bahrain Victorious 13 powered into top form over the weekend at supertri Chicago and the Ironman 70.3 European Championship Tallinn.
Georgia Taylor-Brown and Hayden Wilde raced hard for redemption to claim supertri gold for Crown Racing in the women’s and men’s races respectively in the Windy City, bettering their silver finishes from last week in Boston while Cassandre Beaugrand bounced back from 8th into second place.
With hot and windy conditions facing them in three nonstop rounds of swim-bike-run, Taylor-Brown navigated 300 metres in the choppy current of Lake Michigan, a technical four-kilometre bike course, and a scorching mile-long run each time to clinch the victory.
She said, “It’s nice to be back on top as I’ve forgotten what it feels like to lift the tape. But it’s so hot out here and all the girls did incredibly. I had to dig so deep and knew that I had to go round Taylor [Spivey] and Olivia [Mathias] and just back myself.”
Beaugrand snapped up a Short Chute by finishing the first round the fastest, and then used it on the last run to take a shorter course and propel herself onto the podium. With the race fast and furious on the pointy end, Barbara de Koning and Kate Waugh fell adrift by 90 seconds and were eliminated.
In the men’s race, Wilde was on a mission from the gun and secured a Short Chute off the back of a fast finish in the first round. With that in his back pocket, he raced a bit more conservatively but still up in the lead group to give himself the best possible chance to win on the day – and capitalised on it with a commanding final run.
He said, “I’m super stoked to be back on the top of the podium, it’s been a long time. We talked with the team and I just had to do what I don’t do… I actually hated the racing as it’s not me, but the team needed the big points and it was a hot day.”
Vincent Luis led the remainder of the Crown Racing men into the finish in 9th with Vetle Bergsvik Thorn finishing just behind in 10th and Max Stapley in 13th.
With all points and bonuses totaled from the individual racing for the last two weeks, Crown Racing stands at second in the team leaderboard. The next event in the five-race series will be in London on the 8th of September.
In Estonia, Kat Matthews became European vice-champion, racing into silver off the back of a strong bike and run at the Ironman 70.3 European Championship Tallinn. This performance added to her champion placings at Ironman Vitoria Gasteiz and the Ironman North American Championship lifts her two places on the Ironman Pro Series rankings into fourth.
With the Paris Paralympic Games kicking off, next week Lauren Parker will compete not in just one but two Paralympic sports. The Tokyo Paralympic silver medalist and world champion in paratriathlon and paracycling takes on paratriathlon on September 2. Then she heads into the paracycling time trial on September 4 followed by the road race the next day. Her goal? Three gold medals.
