The eleventh edition of top-tier triathlon in Yokohama will mark the first of the new-look World Triathlon Championship Series on Saturday, as the world’s biggest racing season on the calendar to ultimately decide the women’s 2021 World Champion finally gets back underway. Rarely has the campaign opener carried so many layers of intrigue and importance to so many.
The almost universally shared lack of
race practice from those starting is one thing. Local and virtual racing aside,
this will be the first start line for the vast majority of the athletes since
October last year. For some like Emma Jackson (AUS), Joanna Brown (CAN) and Non
Stanford (GBR), you have to go back to 2019 for their last taste of the blue
carpet.
Another layer is the prospect of the
freshly opened Olympic Qualification window. Summer Rappaport is the only US
triathlete with a place on the Tokyo start line confirmed. Teammates Taylor
Spivey, Katie Zaferes and Taylor Knibb are among those who know that they could
guarantee theirs with a podium finish this weekend.
For Rappaport, WTCS Yokohama
represents an opportunity to race in one of her favourite locations with
minimal pressure, assess any areas she needs to develop and build towards her
first Olympic Games appearance. In contrast, 2019 World Champion Zaferes will
be laser-focussed on returning to the podium she has found herself on for the
past three editions of the race. Silvers in 2017 and 2018 were topped by gold
in her remarkable title-winning year when she also clocked the fastest finish
time recorded on the course: 1h52m12s.
Japanese trio Yuko Takahashi, Juri
Ide and Ai Ueda will lead the line for the home nation in an Olympic year that
has assumed even greater weight than ever before after the enforced delay to
the Games. Takahashi was tantalisingly close to a home podium in 2019, her 4th
place finish more than enough to bring some added confidence to her racing this
time around, while Ueda scored bronze here in the last Olympic year, 2016. A
top-16 finish from any Japanese athlete will be enough to grant them a place on
the Tokyo 2020 start list.
The European contingent could
certainly provide some interesting performances with British representation
headed by the experienced Stanford and Sophie Coldwell returning for the first
time since her 4th place here in 2017. Compatriot Beth Potter could be one to
watch after her eye-catching Arena Games displays and blistering 14m41s time
over 5km last month, and it will be fascinating to see how she responds in her
first race on Japanese soil and what she has left in the locker over her
preferred 10km run.
French pair Cassandre Beaugrand and
Leonie Periault have more than enough explosive power to challenge for the
medals, as does Germany’s Laura Lindemann, bronze medallist at last year’s
standalone World Championships in Hamburg who is another of the names to have
already confirmed her Olympic berth ahead of the start of this year.
Canada’s Joanna Brown makes her first
return to the blue carpet since the Lausanne Grand Final in August 2019. The
2018 Commonwealth Games bronze medallist finished 18th in her only previous
Yokohama start and will be looking to gauge her form in the season’s curtain
raiser.
Belgium’s Claire Michel has three top
10 finishes in Yokohama, including 5th in 2018, Vendula Frintova (CZE), who
first raced here back in 2013, will be ready to prove her staying power once
again, and Maya Kingma (NED) should still have the wind in her sails after a
brilliant bronze in Karlovy Vary saw her on the podium alongside Flora Duffy
and Georgia Taylor-Brown, both of whom are absent this time around.
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EVENT WEBSITE
https://yokohama.triathlon.org/?mc_cid=1992ecafda&mc_eid=6139649918
ABOUT WORLD TRIATHLON
World Triathlon is the international
governing body for the Olympic sport of triathlon and all related multisport
disciplines around the world, including duathlon, aquathlon, cross triathlon
and winter triathlon. Triathlon made its Olympic debut in Sydney 2000, with a
third medal event, the Mixed Team Relay, added to the programme at Tokyo 2020,
while paratriathlon was first added to the Paralympic programme at Rio 2016.
World Triathlon is proudly committed to the development of the sport worldwide,
with inclusion, equality, sustainability and transparency at our core as we
seek to help triathletes at all levels of the sport to be extraordinary.
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