It was less than a year ago that the Olympic champions were crowned in Tokyo but the road for the next one in Paris has just begun. The best triathletes of the world are heading this weekend to Leeds for the second round of the World Triathlon Championship Series in 2022, the first one that will give points for the Olympic Ranking. Everything is ready at Roundhay Park for the sixth edition of the AJ Bell Leeds, that this year will see athletes competing over a sprint distance on a hard, technical and hilly course around Waterloo Lake.
Wearing the golden number 1 this
weekend will be the current leader of the Maurice Lacroix World Triathlon
Championship Series Rankings Leo Bergere. The Frenchman has been one of the
most consistent athletes in the last year, finishing on the podium in four of
the five last Championship Series races, but has never been able to be the
first one crossing the finish line. He seems to be more than willing to take
his chances this weekend, even though the task won’t be an easy one, with some
of his teammates having shown strong credentials lately. The French team
arrives in Leeds in full swing, with six men currently in the Top 20 of the
Maurice Lacroix World Triathlon Championship Series Rankings, and all of them
on a position of fighting for the podium: Leo Bergere, Pierre Le Corre, Paul
Georgenthum, Vincent Luis, Dorian Coninx and Tom Richard.
Two-times World Champion Vincent Luis
will be a hard one to beat in Leeds, after the disappointment of not finishing
WTCS Yokohama. Luis had to stop after he felt a high heart rate during the race
in Yokohama. After being checked by doctors back in France, he has been given
the green light to race and is fully motivated to earn the first Olympic points
on the road to Paris 2024.
It won’t be an easy task for any of
the French athletes to beat local hero Jonathan Brownlee on his playgrounds.
The Brit showed magnificent form two weeks ago winning the first World Cup of
the Olympic Qualification cycle in Arzachena. He has raced in Leeds five times
but never crossed the finish line in first place, but he knows the course by
heart and if it all comes to a run race, it won’t be easy to beat him when he
will be cheered by hundreds of spectators.
One that could be possibly be
claiming the spectator’s love will be indeed Alex Yee, in full form after his
epic battle against Hayden Wilde in Yokohama. It was only a year ago where the
Brit claimed his first-ever victory at the World Triathlon Championship Series
here in Leeds, and the young star seems to be more than ready to repeat this
year, same location but Sprint distance instead.
Wilde on his side will be another one
to watch, with the course and distance perfect for the Kiwi to test his form
ahead of the Commonwealth Games this summer. Other fast runners like Antonio
Serrat Seoane (ESP), Marten Van Riel (BEL), Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS) or Matthew
McElroy (USA) will try to show up for the day, knowing that some rising stars
like Manoel Messias (BRA), Vasco Vilaca (POR) or Matthew Hauser (AUS) also have
the speed to make a difference.
Leeds will see the return to the WTCS
circuit of Gustav Iden (NOR), the two-times 70.3 Ironman World Champion, and
Jelle Geens (BEL), winner in Abu Dhabi 2021 but out injured in the first races
of the 2022 season. Another athlete coming back to the circuit will be Richard
Murray (NED), on his first-ever Series event after switching nationalities, now
competing for The Netherlands.
The blue carpet is set and the
athletes are ready, with some of them also preparing to perform on Sunday in
the Mixed Relay event. The men’s race will get underway on Saturday at 14h local
time, and you can watch the race live on TriathlonLIVE.tv.
Check the full start list here. https://triathlon.org/events/start_list/2022_world_triathlon_championship_series_leeds/545472?mc_cid=8e7cdc2012&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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