Men’s Event
After a day delay due to the pollution in the Seine, the race was run. It was Alessio Crociani (Italy) who led the swim overtaking fast starting Matthew Hauser (Australia). On the bike, it was a group of six, including the two French favourites but they were soon joined by chasers making a larger group of nineteen. Attacks were scattered throughout but no one was able to escape and the group would swell to 32. Alex Yee (Great Britain) went on the attack pretty early in the run, only followed by Jonas Schomburg (Germany) to begin but soon he was surpassed by Hayden Wilde (New Zealand) who joined Yee. By the end of lap one they had a thirteen second gap back to the rest of the chasers. Wilde was able to push ahead of Yee with the trio of Leo Bergere (France), Pierre Le Corre (France) and Tyler Mislawchuk (Canada) chasing him down. Mislawchuk was first to drop and Bergere would begin to drop Le Corre on the final lap. It was an incredible final 400m as Yee would go flying past Wilde who suddenly looked in trouble.
🥇Alex Yee 🇬🇧
🥈Hayden Wilde 🇳🇿
🥉Leo Bergere 🇫🇷
Another event that didn’t feel like the British winner was going to do it for the majority of the race. But he timed it perfectly. Wilde has been the second best triathlete this cycle and any other country I would have predicted him to come in second. I gave too much credence to the French home advantage and picked the wrong athlete. Both of his teammates beat him at the test event which led to me ignoring the recent world champion.
Women’s Event
Flora Duffy (Bermuda) led for the majority of the swim, in a trick current, and was first out on her bike. Behind her was a group of eleven, just under 20 seconds behind at the end of the first lap and a few stragglers a few seconds further back. A wet track would lead to falls and slips. Duffy would be caught on the second lap and the group was ten. She was joined in that group by Cassandre Beaugrand (France), Julie Derron (Switzerland), Maya Kingma (Netherlands), Zsanett Kuttor-Bragmayer (Hungary), Laura Lindemann (Germany), Emma Lombardi (France), Beth Potter (Great Britain), Taylor Spivey (United States) and Georgia Taylor-Brown (Great Britain). Lindemann would take a bit of a spill and the group was down to nine, as it would remain until the run. Soon there was a group of four with Derron, Beaugrand, Lombardi and Porter. With a lap to go, the four were still together despite attacks from Derron. On the final lap, Beaugrand would slowly attack, getting a bit of distance from the rest of the group, with Lombardi finding herself distanced from the other two. Potter, despite arguably being the strongest runner looked increasingly weary but managed to hang onto third.
🥇Cassandre Beaugrand 🇫🇷
🥈Julie Derron 🇨🇭
🥉Beth Potter 🇬🇧
I had hoped Georgia Taylor-Brown was back to 2022 form but it wasn’t to be. 2023 pointed me to Beaugrand vs Potter and I plumped for Potter given her generally superior run. It didn’t turn out the way as Beaugrand was roared on by a home crowd. Derron was a big surprise to me based on the form as nothing showed her able to compete at this level.
Mixed Relay
Alex Yee is up first for Great Britain and hands over first. France and New Zealand have a tangle on the first leg which causes both to lose some time. It was an incredible run for Lisa Tertsch which put Germany in the lead at halfway from Great Britain, with Switzerland a few seconds behind. At the end of the third leg Great Britain led Germany by five seconds. Portugal were in a group with Italy and United States battling for bronze. Potter was first out of the river on the swim leg with the gap slightly growing to Lindemann. Knibb had gone into third on the swim. Knibb cycled back to Lindemann and soon they were in a group with Potter. They begun to pull away on the run but Potter would come back over the final stages. At the finish line, the three were separated by just 0.01
🥇Germany 🇩🇪
🥈United States 🇺🇸
🥉Great Britain 🇬🇧
France were cruelly taken out of the running after a tangle on the first leg. I do believe without that, they would have won gold. Having Knibb with Lindemann on the cycle was key for them getting back up to Potter. I was surprised, as with the female race that she was not able to get the win on the run. Possibly not challenging in the individual races meant that Germany and United States were fresher
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