An impressive run under the pouring
rain gave Sophie Coldwell (GBR) her maiden World Triathlon Championship Series
title in Yokohama. The Brit put up a solid performance combining a great swim,
a powerful bike and left the second transition in the lead to never look back.
She run solo for 10km to claim the first major victory of her career, one that
also puts her on top of the World Triathlon Championship Series Rankings.
Second on the line in Yokohama was another newcomer, Mexico’s Rosa Maria Tapia
Vidal, who claimed the first podium in the Series for her country in over while
USA’s Taylor Knibb signed her come back to the circuit with a bronze medal.
Yokohama Women’s race saw a full
field stacked with talent, all 60 women lining up or the second of eight stops
on this year’s tour (including the Paris Test Event), that will ultimately decide
our 2023 World Champions in Pontevedra at the end of September. And even before
the horn sounded, it was clear that the day would be a challenging one, with
threatening clouds anticipating was it was to come.
By the time the 60 women lined up on
the pontoon, first drops were starting to fall in Yokohama, but it didn’t seem
to bother the likes of Maya Kingma (NED), Summer Rappaport (USA) or Sophie
Coldwell (GBR), all showing their strength on the swim from the first strokes.
But they had an unexpected companion, Chinese young athlete Yifan Yang, who
surprised the filed to lead out of the water in the first lap of the swim and
maintained the lead for the final 750m.
Yang led a small group of eight
athletes -Kingma, Coldwell, Rappaport, Taylor Spivey, Kate Waugh (GBR), Tapia
Vidal, Kirsten Kasper and Knibb- to the first transition, and they quickly got
on their bikes, knowing that Georgia Taylor-Brown had a surprisingly average
swim and entered transition almost 30 seconds behind them. And as the athletes
were getting ready for the nine laps on the bike, rain started to fall harder
and things got complicated for all athletes.
In just one lap, the leaders dropped
Fang and the seven of them started pushing quickly, opening a gap that in just
one lap was almost 40 seconds, Taylor-Brown, Natalie Van Coevorden (AUS), Emma
Lombardi (FRA) and Sophie Linn (AUS) trying desperately to get the big chase
group to work together and chase the leaders.
But things are always easier for
smaller groups, specially when the roads are soaking wet and there’s plenty of
white paint everywhere, and the leading margin grew lap after lap. Taylor-Brown
tried a few times to get the group organised but with not much luck, and by the
time they hit the second transition they were almost 1’40’’ behind the leading
seven.
Ahead of them, Knibb tried to charge
a few times an open a small break, but was quickly swallowed again by Kingma
and Spivey, and kept doing the yo-yo staying at the back of the group to try to
save some legs for the run. Cause the leading seven knew from half way through
the bike that today will be a running race, and it was a matter of staying safe
under the pouring rain and give it all in the last 10k.
And so they did. First two out of T2
were Spivey and Coldwell, shoulder to shoulder, followed by Knibb, Kingma and
Rappaport, Vidal and Kasper a bit behind, but before the first 500m Coldwell
charged, gave a quick glimpse behind them, checked that no one was following
her and went for the win, not looking back even once.
While she run solo for 10 km under
the rain, behind her the battle was unfolding for the rest of the spots on the
podium. Knibb seem to be the only one able to follow the pace of Coldwell for
the first half of the run, while Spivey and Kate Waugh were running together on
what looked like it was going to be the battle for bronze. But 10km can be
quite long, and while Taylor-Brown and Lombardi were trying to make up some
time to make it to the top ten, Tapia Vidal starting pushing to first catch
Kingma, Waugh, Spivey and with less than 2kms to go, she went on to try to pass
Knibb.
Coldwell kept the pace to cross the
line in first place, almost crying of joy with an impressive 33:53 running
split, enough to give her the first WTCS win of her career, a victory that also
puts her in the first place of the World Triathlon Championship Series
Rankings. “I’ll try not to cry, it’s like a dream. I can’t really believe it.
We had a really good block of training in Australia before Abu Dhabi and raced
Abu Dhabi off the back of that. Now I just came here and tried to put the same
processes in place. I am literally lost for words and this doesn’t happen very
much”, said a speechless Coldwell after crossing the finish line. “This year
for us is all about Olympic selection and it’s tough being from GB, we have
such a strong roster of girls. Hopefully this is another step forward to try
and make that team,” she explained.
Behind her, Tapia Vidal looked as if
she just couldn’t believe what she had just done finishing in second place, a
first time top 10 for her country since Claudia Rivas finished in the 9th place
in WTS Edmonton 2015. “I am really really happy for my result. This is my first
medal in a World Cup or a World Series. I am still in shock. I will make
mention of all the effort from my coach and all the people supporting me. It
worked for me today. It’s been a long time since Mexico was on the podium in a
World Series, I am really happy and grateful with my country. I will see you
back home soon,” she said.
Knibb managed to stay ahead of Spivey
and claimed a third place on her come back to WTCS racing after an injury that
has kept her away for months. “I think everything was a bit of a shock to the
system. Everyone was jostling for positions. If you told me a few months ago
that I would be here at this race, let along on the podium, this is a really
big surprise. I am just really grateful to be here. My surgeon told me it’s
good to have a goal to get me through recovery and the fact that I am here,
I’ll take that. I am really grateful to my team for getting me back. I was on
crutches a few weeks ago so thank you to everyone”, she admitted.
Spivey could only finish in 4th
place, while Kate Waugh -the U23 World Champion in 2022- crcossed the finish
line in 5th place, the best finish of her career so far. Maya Kingma ended in
the 6th place, followed by Georgia Taylor-Brown, who had the best running split
of the day, enoughg to get her ahead of Kirsten Kasper in 8th, Lombardi in 9th
and Summer Rappaport rounding up the top 10.
Results: Elite Women
1. Sophie
Coldwell GBR 01:53:32
2. Rosa
Maria Tapia Vidal MEX 01:53:49
3. Taylor
Knibb USA 01:54:02
4. Taylor
Spivey USA 01:54:14
5. Kate
Waugh GBR 01:54:20
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