The last stop of the World Triathlon
Cup circuit this year will take athletes to Vina del Mar, Chile, for a Sprint
distance race that will see Olympic medalists, World Champions and some rising
stars of the sport chasing the last Olympic qualification points of the year.
Women's Preview
It will be three American women
leading the start list for this Sunday’s final World Triathlon Cup of the
season, with Katie Zaferes wearing the one, followed by Gwen Jorgensen and Gina
Sereno.
There will also be three Olympic
medallists lining up in Vina del mar this Sunday: Katie Zaferes (USA) -bronze
in the individual race at Tokyo 2020 and silver at the Mixed Relay-; Gwen
Jorgensen (USA), gold at the Rio 2016 Games and Vicky Holland (GBR), bronze
also in Rio 2016. The three of them have returned to competition this season
after giving birth, and the three of them trying to scale back to the leading
positions on the Olympic qualification rankings and guarantee a spot on the
USA’s Olympic team for Paris 2024.
For Jorgensen, Vina del Mar would be
her seventh World Cup this season, and she has podiumed at five of them,
including a victory at Valencia, Karlovy Vary and Tongyeong World Cups.
Meanwhile, Zaferes has raced a few more World Triathlon Championship Series
events this year, and her results on that circuit -5th place in Montreal was
her best result this year- plus a couple of podiums at World Cup level have put
her currently in fifth place amongst the USA women on the World Rankings, which
grants her a spot on the start list of the first WTCS races next year.
Vicky Holland was the latest female
athlete to return to competition after giving birth, just a month ago, and when
her first child is not even one year old, and seems to be back in shape. She
finished in 7th place on her debut at the Tangier World Cup, and is ready to
close this season with a fourth World Cup here in Vina del Mar.
Quite a few athletes lining up this
Sunday will have the experience of having raced in the same course just a week
ago, for the Pan American Games, and will be trying to use that experience in
their favor. Erica Hawley (BER) -4th at the PanAm, her best ever result- is
ready for the second round, this time shorter, and also looking for a better
performance in Chile would be Emy Legault (CAN), Djenyfer Arnold (BRA) or Luisa
Baptista (BRA).
The battle in Vina del Mar would be
one for the records, with a Sprint distance course similar to the one used for
the Pan American Games, with a 750m swim in one lap on the chilly and wavy
Pacific Ocean water, to be followed by three laps on a tough and technical bike
course that has a hill that will test all the athletes, to then finish with a
flat and fast 5km run along the El Sol beach.
Unlike to what happened at the Pan
American Games, where the field was stacked with uber swimmers like Lizeth
Rueda or Vittoria Lopes, the race this Sunday is more liked to be a suitable
one for the likes of Zaferes, Holland or Mathilde Gaultier (FRA), who will
likely be looking to get out of the water with a bit of a margin and try to
break away from the group on the bike.
Tough and technical, the bike course
is ideal for strong bikers like the mentioned Zaferes, Dominika Jamnicky (CAN),
Holland, Djenyfer Arnold or Elizabeth Bravo (ECU), who will be determined to
make an impact on the race to avoid arriving to the second transition with fast
runners like Jorgensen or Anahi Alvarez (MEX).
The Vina del Mar wome’s race will
start on Sunday, 12 November, at 9.45am local time. You can watch the race live
on TriathlonLIVE.tv, and check the full start list here.
Men's Preview
The tourist capital of Chile, Vina
del Mar, is ready for a second round of triathlon action and is ready to
welcome some of the best triathletes of the world for the last World Cup of
this season. 56 men are ready for a tough battle on a Sprint course that will
see an impressive roster of athletes, from Olympic medallists like Henri
Schoeman to the new Pan American golden boy Miguel Hidalgo, and local hero
Diego Moya.
Many of the athletes lining up this
Sunday at the El Sol beach have been in Chile for over a week, and already know
the course after competing at the Pan American Games. It is the case of Seth
Rider and Chase McQueen (USA), both of them continuing the chase of points,
trying to secure to have three American men in the top 30 of the Olympic
Qualification rankings, which will give Team USA three spots at the Olympic
Games in Paris.
A fantastic swimmer, McQueen will be
looking to break the race before hitting the first transition, as likely would
be the local star, Diego Moya (CHI), who delivered a magnificent swim at the
Pan American Games last week and managed to hold on to the lead positions to
just fade at the last kilometers of the run and cross the line in 9th place.
But Moya already knows what it is to podium at home, as he delivered a
masterclass of racing last year in Vina del Mar to claim the 2nd place, and is
really looking forward to round up the season on the podium again.
Another great swimmer might join the
efforts of making an impact on the race from the beginning: Henri Schoeman
(RSA). The bronze medallist at the Rio 2016 Games is racing in Vina del mar
just a week after an impressive third place at the Noosa triathlon in
Australia, and is always a name to keep in mind when it comes to hard and
technical races as the one in Vina del Mar would be.
But with a hard and technical bike
course planned, the battle for the victory will not be an easy one for the
great swimmers. Miguel Hidalgo (BRA) proved at the Pan American Games that he
is currently the man to beat. With two gold medals in one week hanging on his
neck, Hidalgo knows the course front and back, after mastering it in the
Standard distance of the individual race and the Super Sprint of the Mixed
Relay. With the course for the World Cup exactly the same as the PanAms (just
half the laps), it will not be easy to take him out of the leading positions.
His teammate, Manoel Messias, will
likely be looking out for redemption, after the disappointment of finishing the
PanAm Games in 10th place. If he can improve his swim -his wetsuit was broken
half way through the swim last week- and makes it to the run with the lead
group, he will be hard to beat.
With a wetsuit swim almost guaranteed
-last week the water temperature was around 15ºC-, it will be a great
opportunity for the likes of Brock Hoel (CAN), Martin Sobey (CAN) or Tyler
Smith (BER) to try to get in the lead pack out of the first transition, but also
expect the strong bikers like Seth Rider (USA), Panagiotis Bitados (GRE) or
Paul Georgenthum (FRA) to make an impact on the race during the bike,
especially on the technical downhill of each lap.
If it all comes to a run race,
there’s some other names that will put themselves on the mix to fight for the
podium positions, like David Castro Fajardo (ESP), who won at the Vina del Mar
World Cup last year; Crisanto Grajales (MEX), bronze at the Pan American Games
last week; Rotislav Pevtsov (AZE) or Gianlucca Pozzatti (ITA) are known for
their speed and can never be discharged on these type of races.
The men will take the stage on Sunday
at 11.30 am local time, and you can watch the races on TriathlonLIVE.tv. Check
out the full start list here.
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