After a first appearance on the circuit last year, WTCS Weihai is back. As the final round before the 2025 Series Final, it will be last chance saloon for a variety of athletes, whether for those hoping to fight for a top-10 or higher in the overall standings, or for those trying to earn the right to start at the Final at all. Based on last year’s race, though, anyone looking to come away with serious points will not have it easy. The streets of Weihai promise a punishing test and a start list full of athletes hungry for points guarantees every second will have to be fought for. Find out which men will be there below.
Who’s there?
The winner of WTCS Yokohama 2024, Morgan Pearson, is the only previous WTCS gold medallist on the start list and as such could play a huge role in deciding the race. As a T100 wildcard, we have not seen Pearson fully dialled-in on the WTCS this year. In Weihai, however, he will have the chance to go for gold and we may just see the best of him. With John Reed, Seth Rider and Darr Smith also racing, Team USA is close to full strength.
Joining them will be a large British contingent. In Connor Bentley, Hugo Milner and Max Stapley, they have World Cup winners raring to go. Ben Dijkstra got his 2025 off to a bang with a terrific WTCS debut in Abu Dhabi and could replicate his high finish again. The man to watch from the quintet, though, may be Jack Willis. Last year, Willis logged a personal best WTCS finish in Weihai (of 9th) and so could be a smart pick to finish well this time out.
A similarly large team will be entered by Japan. Recently crowned Asian champion Takumi Hojo is the star of the cast with Ren Sato, Kyotaro Yoshikawa, Aoba Yasumatsu and Kazushi Jozuka also hoping to deliver. The Swiss team can also call upon a new continental champion of their own; Max Studer starts alongside Simon Westermann in the wake of his recent European title.
Hong Kong is another country with a significant contingent. Their four-man line-up will consist of Paris Olympian Jason Tai Long Ng, Oscar Coggins, Robin Elg and Tsz To Wong.
Portugal have had a great season with four WTCS medals safely tucked into their account. However, the man that earned all four, Vasco Vilaca, will not be racing. In his place, Ricardo Batista, Joao Nuno Batista and Miguel Tiago Silva will aim to keep the country’s run of success alive.
Another team to send three men to Weihai is Austria. They will be represented by Tjebbe Kaindl, Philip Pertl and Lukas Pertl. Neighbouring Germany will have one of the breakout stars of 2025 racing in the form of Henry Graf. He will start alongside Valentin Wernz.
From Down Under, WTCS medallist Luke Willian races for Australia in tandem with Brandon Copeland. Their counterparts from across the Tasman Sea will be Tayler Reid and Saxon Morgan.
Liam Donnelly and Martin Sobey will start for Canada while Arnaud Mengal and Erwin Vanderplancke will compete for Belgium. Roberto Sanchez Mantecon (ESP), Mitch Kolkman (NED) and Márk Dévay (HUN) are some of the podium threats that are the sole entrants for their countries. Finally, the home team will look to whip up a storm through Junjie Fan, Nanhe Wang, Qing Chen and Yunfeng Tan.
Who’s not there?
At this late stage in the season, several athletes faced the difficult decision to stick and stay home to train for the WTCS Final, or to twist and hunt further points to boost their ranking. The current top dogs in the men’s Series have plumped for the former with Matthew Hauser, Vasco Vilaca, Miguel Hidalgo and Dorian Coninx all choosing to save their energy for Wollongong.
Similarly, Olympic medallists Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde will not be racing. Neither, however, have contested full WTCS campaigns this year so their absence is no great surprise. The primary consequence of this is that there will be room for some new faces on the podium. We will have to wait and see who grabs their chance with both hands.
Four talking points
A door opens
One of the fascinating dynamics of WTCS Weihai will be how open the medals could be. Only three athletes with WTCS medal-winning experience will be starting: Pearson, Willian and Sanchez Mantecon. On the other hand, there will be numerous World Cup medallists on the start line, each of whom will be champing at the bit to make the step up.
With everything to gain, we could see some riskier racing than usual. For the likes of Tayler Reid, Mitch Kolkman, Márk Dévay and more, Weihai could offer the breakaway of their dreams. Equally, the likes of Ricardo Batista, Hugo Milner and Aoba Yasumatsu will relish being able to throw down fast run splits without the overbearing presence of a Yee, Wilde or Hauser in their paths. Notwithstanding that Pearson, Willian and Sanchez Mantecon could spoil everything, this race should be wide open.
Icing the cake
Henry Graf made his debut in Hamburg last summer, however 2025 has essentially been his rookie season in the WTCS. And what a season it has been. In each of his three appearances, he has finished in the top-8 and now holds 5th place overall. In the aftermath of WTCS French Riviera, he has also been talked about as one of the strongest cyclists in the field. The question is, how good could his season get?
A parallel can almost be drawn to his compatriot Lisa Tertsch. Last year, Tertsch earned a maiden WTCS win in Weihai. Although she had already medalled in the Series, something Graf is yet to do, Graf could make a similar step up by slotting into the minor medals. Doing so would put the icing on the cake in what has been a tremendous season. Moreover, it could just prove the difference between beating Dorian Coninx to 4th in the overall standings. When considering potential maiden medallists, then, Graf is perhaps the best bet of them all.
Champion of Asia…
Takumi Hojo was back to his thrilling best as he claimed the Asian title in Istanbul last weekend. Now, Asia’s best will have the opportunity to further burnish his CV with an Asian WTCS race.
Hojo is already a World Cup gold medallist and has few weaknesses across the board. He has shown that he can mix it in breakaways (exhibit A: Istanbul last weekend) while also possessing the footspeed to win a running race. No matter how the race in Weihai falls, then, he should be able to put himself towards the front.
…meets champion of Europe
Istanbul was unique insofar that it hosted the Asian and European Championships concurrently and, by crowning the champions of both, it has set up a clash between the two at WTCS Weihai. Like Hojo, Max Studer arrives in Weihai with a shiny new gold medal and a chance to improve on his previous WTCS best. Despite their continental differences, it may actually be Studer that has a stronger claim to home advantage.
Studer has trained in China for large chunks of the previous few seasons. A 2023 Asia Cup win in Dexing came at the back of an extended period of training in the country, while he started this season with a win in Putrajaya, Malaysia. As such, there is a case to be made that China is a home-from-home for Studer. That kind of familiarity with the environment could just prove the difference later this month.
You can see the full men’s start lists here. Be sure to follow all the latest across World Triathlon channels and tune in to WTCS Weihai on TriathlonLive on 26th September.
