A new World Triathlon Cup season
begins with the 2024 World Triathlon Cup Napier, a coastal city of New
Zealand’s North Island. While New Zealand is well known for staging triathlon
races, this will be the inaugural World Triathlon Cup for Napier. The race
schedule is stacked across Saturday 24th and Sunday 25 February. Saturday will
host the 2024 Oceania Triathlon Junior Championships Napier and the 2024 World
Triathlon Cup Napier with the world’s best athletes racing in an all-important
Olympic qualification window for Paris 2024. Sunday will stage the Age-Group
races, Oceania Junior Mixed Relay and the 2024 World Triathlon Mixed Relay. The
2024 World Triathlon Cup is a sprint-distance triathlon (750m swim, 20km cycle
and 5km run) and will start along the iconic stretch of the waterfront in
Napier called Perfume Point. The 2024 event will be integrated into a Triathlon
Festival featuring the New Zealand Sprint Distance Championships. It’s time for
athletes to test out how the pre-season build has gone and show off form, as
the world’s best fire up to battle it out in a sprint-distance format, the
first World Cup race of 2024. The Elite women will race on Saturday from 4pm
local time and the men will line-up from 6pm, all watchable on the platform
TriathlonLive.tv (live and on-demand).
The Wilde favourite
New Zealand’s Olympic medallist and
ranked number two in the world Hayden Wilde will take centre stage and wear
number one in Saturday’s World Cup season opener in Napier, New Zealand. Wilde
is a firm favourite to not only claim victory in the first World Cup of the
season but to qualify in 2024 to represent New Zealand in the next Olympic
Games in Paris.
Young guns ready to fire
Wilde will be joined by Portugal’s
Ricardo Batista, a sprint-distance specialist and known for his gutsy
performances right to the end. In the 2023 World Triathlon Cup in New Zealand,
staged in New Plymouth, silver and bronze medals came down to the wire in one of
the most thrilling sprint finished between Batista and New Zealand’s Tayler
Reid, where the Portuguese athlete had to settle for third place. Batista
earned the silver medal in the 2023 World Triathlon Cup Tongyeong at the end of
last season followed by 5th place in the World Cup in Miyazaki, after serving a
penalty. The Portuguese athlete will be highly motivated to sprint for a medal
in Napier this weekend. Reid will also prove fierce competition come Saturday’s
sprint-distance World Cup.
New Zealand’s rising star Dylan
McCullough, who earned his first World Cup medal in 2023 in the World Triathlon
Cup Miyazaki, showed off fantastic form last weekend claiming the silver in the
2024 Oceania Triathlon Cup in Wanaka. McCullough is eager to line up in Napier
and produce a result which will assist his Olympic campaign to Paris in 2024.
Olympic dreams on the line
Hungary’s Olympian Gabor Faldum is an
experienced triathlete who is motivated towards representing at another Olympic
Games this summer. Faldum secured a top 10 finish in the 2023 World Triathlon
Cup in Chengdu, proving his strength up against some of the world’s best rising
stars of the sport.
Australia’s Commonwealth Games
representative Luke Willian and rising star Brandon Copeland will be eager to test
early season form in Napier on Saturday. Both men have stated their intent to
qualify and represent Australia in the next Olympic Games in Australia. Napier
provides a strong opportunity to earn valuable Olympic points. Willian crossed
the line in 7th place in the 2023 World Triathlon Cup Chengdu and Copeland was
9th in the 2023 World Triathlon Cup in Tongyeong and 6th place in the World Cup
in Miyazaki to close the season.
The British troops ready for a
showdown
A strong contingent of British talent
will start the World Cup season in Napier, featuring Daniel Dixon, Samuel
Dickinson, Hugo Milner and Ben Dijkstra. Milner showed incredible talent at the
end of 2023 when he showcased the best race of his career resulting in victory
in the 2023 World Triathlon Cup Miyazaki.
One to watch
Spain’s Genis Grauhayden could also
be among the contenders to watch on Saturday. Grau brought home his first World
Cup gold medal in the 2022 World Triathlon Cup Huatulco and 4th place in the
2023 World Cup in Mexico, both in sprint-distance race formats. Norway’s Casper
Stornes
Review the start list: 2024 World
Triathlon Cup Napier - Elite Men and follow the action live and on-demand over
on TriathlonLive.tv on Saturday 24th February with the men lining up at 6pm
local time.
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