It all began back in September 2021
in Germany’s home of triathlon, Hamburg. Since then, the 2022 World Triathlon
Championship Series has taken in 8 stops, seen a total of 126 women chasing the
year’s biggest prize, and looks set to boil down to a straight shootout between
two outstanding competitors in one final showdown in Abu Dhabi.
By approximately 3pm local time on
Friday, 25 November, the women’s 2022 World Triathlon Champion will have been
decided once and for all. Flora Duffy and Georgia Taylor-Brown will have
crossed the finish line and the final points will be awarded on what has been
an unforgettable rollercoaster of a season.
Both have three wins so far in the
campaign, both will be taking precisely nothing for granted. With the likes of
Beth Potter, Laura Lindemann and Cassandre Beaugrand all waiting to pounce on
any slip up, the two currently at the top of the triathlon tree know that they
will have to do it the hard way: in the heat of Abu Dhabi, in the pressure
cooker of a Championship Finals and most likely shoulder-to-shoulder against
the best in the business.
The course is also unfamiliar, with
the usual Yas Marina F1 circuit switched for a more technical test on the
peninsula’s highways. As ever, the 1.5km swim will be a hot one, the transition
to the 40km bike tense. Each of the 8 laps will ratchet up the anticipation
before the 10km run decides who will be crowned the 2022 World Champion, and
you can watch it all play out on TriathlonLive.tv.
GTB x Duffy, easy as 1-2-3
Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown holds
the narrowest of leads heading into the decider, victories in Yokohama,
Montreal and Cagliari and second place in Leeds her four scoring races. Three
of those were over the Olympic distance, Montreal’s super-sprint gauntlet quite
the opposite, and she has enjoyed an extended lead-in acclimatising to the UAE
heat after skipping WTCS Bermuda to focus on preparations.
After coming off second best at the
Tokyo Olympics and Birmingham Commonwealths, the 28-year-old will not only be
fired up for revenge, but will now know exactly what it should take to win her
second world title both in the literal sense – finishing ahead of her rival –
and the mental and physical sense, against the toughest opponent out there.
For Bermuda’s Flora Duffy, victory would
mean a record fourth world title, one more than Emma Snowsill and further
emphasising her status as the greatest the sport has ever seen. A consummate
victory three weeks ago at WTCS Bermuda rubbished any doubts about fitness
after a year punctuated with illness, adding to her golds in Abu Dhabi last
year and Hamburg this.
Should she finish in fifth place,
Duffy would then need at least one other athlete to place between her and
Taylor-Brown to still be able to take the title. In a season where we have come
to expect the unexpected, nothing is beyond the realms of possibility.
Outside influences
Likely to be having a say on the way
the race plays out is USA’s Taylor Knibb. An absolute force on the bike, she
will look to hoover up the technical challenges and power through the
straights, taking whoever can stay on her wheel along for the ride.
It was in Bermuda that Maya Kingma
was able to bridge up to a solo Duffy early on and help take some of the load
before an ankle injury ended her challenge, Beth Potter among those able to
pass her late on as the pain took hold.
Potter has been the epitome of
consistency this campaign, her third place overall heading to Abu Dhabi
testament to that, after bronze in WTCS Montreal kicked off a trio of excellent
podiums in 2022. USA’s Taylor Spivey was in a similar spot last year, a Series
gold remaining elusive despite seemingly being ever-present in and around the
top 5 down the blue carpet.
Laura Lindemann did find WTCS gold
for the first time in 2022, that win in Hamburg’s season-opener helping her
into fourth place in the Maurice Lacroix Rankings and within touching distance
of a Series medal. The German star would need to finish two spots ahead of
Potter to leapfrog her in the standings.
Deep-stacked start list
Cassandre Beaugrand returns from
injury to do battle once more, the French 25-year-old a revelation in Leeds as
she stormed to gold and silver medallist at the end of a dramatic WTCS
Montreal. An outstanding runner on her day, Beaugrand’s potential impact on the
race should not be downplayed.
Another young French talent Emma
Lombardi could be a factor, the U23 World Champion stepping up for her first
elite Championship Finals along with Lisa Tertsch of Germany and Denmark’s
Alberte Kjaer Pedersen.
Add in the experience of Summer
Rappaport (USA) and Miriam Casillas Garcia (ESP), the finishing power of Luisa
Baptista (BRA) and Julie Derron (SUI) or a resurgent Leonie Periault (FRA) and
it all adds up to a one of the most hotly anticipated Finals possible.
Women’s 2022 Championship Finals
Friday, 24 November from 1pm local
time
Watch on TriathlonLive.tv https://www.triathlonlive.tv/featured/videos/2022-world-triathlon-championship-finals-abu-dhabi-women?mc_cid=9223d7b0c5&mc_eid=6139649918
Full start list click here.
https://triathlon.org/events/start_list/2022_world_triathlon_championship_finals_abu_dhabi/560517?mc_cid=9223d7b0c5&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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