The 2022 Multisport World
Championships Targu Mures continues on Wednesday morning with the Cross
Triathlon titles the next on the line. With a sun-baked course and high
temperatures expected, conditions should be wildly different from those
encountered at El Anillo Extremadura in Spain last year, when Loanne Duvoisin
(SUI) and Arthur Serrieres (FRA) battled through the mud to take the titles,
and both will be hungry for more success here.
The 1km swim follows the curve of
Muresul Sports Complex lake, up and back before transitioning to the mountain
bikes with a 3.7km link to five 4.5km loops through the Transylvanian forest,
with 180m of climbs and descents. Two laps of the 3.5km run will round out the
action, and you can follow it all over on TriathlonLive.tv.
It was a French one-two in 2021,
Arthur Serrieres following his XTERRA European title with an emotional world
title, and it is a course that the 27-year-old knows well after winning the
European Cross Duathlon title here in 2019.
Compatriot Arthur Forissier was the
man in second last year, but after his world title win in Pontevedra, also in
2019, conditions may suit him a little better with a tougher and more technical
course to deal with than in Spain.
The hugely experienced Ruben Ruzafa
(ESP) will be chasing a sixth world title, while Lukas Cocar (CZE) will want to
use his explosive swim to create as much of a gap out of the water as possible.
New Zealand’s Sam Osbourne returns to the multisport stage for the first time
since his silver in 2018 and is in red-hot form heading into Wednesday’s race
after recently capturing his 14th XTERRA tour win.
Netherlands’ Joep Staps will know the
course well after his cross duathlon effort on Monday along with local
favourites Szabolcs Kovacs and Mihail Chindris (ROU), while Ben Allen and
Taylor Charlton represent Australia, the latter making his World Triathlon
debut.
It will be another fascinating battle
between Loanne Duvoisin and the Italian pair Sandra Mairhofer and Eleonora
Peroncini in the elite women’s race. Switzerland’s Devoisin delivered a
brilliant run to take the title in Extremadura last year after Winter Triathlon
World Champion Mairhofer had dominated the bike course, while Peroncini’s gold
in Monday’s cross duathlon will have given her great confidence on a course
that plays to her strengths.
Former French national champion
Alizee Paties will want to build on her top 10 finish in Spain. USA’s former
elite triathlete Amanda Felder returns to action for her first taste of Cross
Triathlon action ready to test herself on this demanding course, as does New
Zealand’s Samantha Kingsford, former Age Group World Champion back in 2012 and
fifth-placed at the 2018 Fyn Cross Triathlon World Championships.
Romanian medal hopes lie with Agnes
Tuzson, fifth in Monday’s Cross Duathlon race, while France’s 2019 European
Champion here in the 20-24 age-group Solenne Billouin will return to Targu
Mures to make her elite debut on Wednesday morning.
Full start lists can be found here https://www.triathlon.org/events/start_lists/2022_world_triathlon_cross_championships_targu_mures?mc_cid=d23d022471&mc_eid=6139649918
ABOUT WORLD TRIATHLON
World Triathlon is the international
governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic 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 para triathlon 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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