The first racing of 2025 is coming in hot, and all the signs are for an absolute firecracker of a men’s sprint-distance contest on the all new Hudayriat island course on 15 February.
There’s always plenty of sub-plots and form-testing as the athletes emerge from the off-season, but one thing is for sure: a win in the first of this year’s 7-stop WTCS Series races would be a massive statement of intent for whoever can seize it with both hands next month.
Watch it all unfold on the new-look TriathlonLive.tv from 4pm local time on 15 February.
Hayden Wilde wears the #1
The manner of his victory in the Torremolinos Finals three months ago hinted at what may be to come from the Falcon Hayden Wilde in 2025. In 2018, Vincent Luis won in Gold Coast and went on to take the next two world titles. In Lausanne 2019 it was Kristian Blummenfelt with the Grand Final gold before going stratospheric. Is this to be Wilde's time to shine?
Alex Yee’s world title in Torremolinos made him the first man since Luis to become world champion without taking the Grand Final tape, but Wilde’s rival has his eyes on the London Marathon, delaying his entry into the Series fray. None of which will mean much of anything to Wilde when he gets on that start line, and he’ll no doubt be targeting a top 10 swim, fluid bike and watching the clock on the run as he sharpens the start of four massive years ahead of LA 2028.
Vilaça and Hauser on the front foot
Australia’s Matt Hauser and Portugal’s Vasco Vilaça also start, packing massive ambitions for the year ahead. Hauser has WTCS golds from his past two seasons, Vilaça still patiently – or not – awaits his first. Both, it seems, just need a solid run of incident-free racing to realise their title-contention potential.
Miguel Hidalgo and Manoel Messias spearhead Brazil’s four-deep team, both equally capable of medalling in the heat of the desert. Hidalgo may be the more complete triathlete of the two, but position off the bike will be everything to his compatriot’s challenge.
Fierce run form incoming
The new-look Spanish squad suddenly puts Roberto Sanchez and Antonio Serrat into the ‘senior’ bracket as U23 World Champion David Cantero and the bullet Alberto Gonzalez begin to make waves at the highest level, pointing to a big year ahead for Spain.
Morgan Pearson arrives fresh from clocking a rapid 1:01:01 half marathon as he searches for some consistency in his swim and bike to set up the enviable run power that compatriot and rising star John Reed saw up close and personal in last year’s Continental Championships . The prospect of him going shoulder-to-shoulder with the likes of Cantero, Canada’s Charles Paquet and Hugo Milner is certainly one to savour. Milner has quickly established himself as one of the fastest triathletes on two feet, and the Brit starts his second WTCS season along with compatriots Max Stapley, Ben Dijkstra and Harry Leleu.
Yanis Seguin’s European Championship silver and a first World Cup win in late 2024 help set up his bid to become a regular Series pick for France. It could all hinge on a big showing in only his second WTCS start. The German squad also has a new look, Jonas Schomburg joined by the impressive, Mixed Relay title-winning Henry Graf and another relative Series newcomer Jan Diener.
Kenji Nener (JPN) will return refreshed from a gruelling end to last year, Simon Westermann (SUI) holds big hopes for a breakthrough performance, and youngsters Ricardo Batista and Mitch Kolkman look set to establish themselves if not already at, then certainly pulling up a chair to, triathlon’s top table.
WTCS ABU DHABI MEN'S START LIST
15 FEBRUARY, 4PM
TRIATHLONLIVE.TV
