The cavalry are coming. After Cassandre Beaugrand dominated WTCS Alghero to the point that the question of how to beat her elicited only a half-hearted shrug, two athletes capable of taking the fight to the Olympic champion will be making their first Series appearances of 2025 at the upcoming stop in Hamburg. One was the last woman to beat Beaugrand and 2023 world champion Beth Potter in the same race, while the other poses a threat from within the French national camp. Read on to find out which challengers will be (tri)suiting up against Beaugrand in Hamburg and some of the big talking points from the start lists.
Who’s there?
With her first win of the 2025 Series safely secured, Cassandre Beaugrand is back and gunning for another. For anyone hoping to dethrone the world champion, Hamburg may represent the last chance saloon, for if she is not stopped here she will leave as the only multiple race winner of the season so far and her path to a second world title will be clear. If prior form is anything to go by, defeating her will be an almighty challenge. After all, Beaugrand won WTCS Hamburg in 2023 and 2024.
Leonie Periault is again starting, having been at every WTCS race this season. Alongside her, there will be two new faces on the French team: Emma Lombardi and Ilona Hadhoum. Much attention will naturally go to Lombardi, who finished 4th at the Paris Olympic Games. She has multiple WTCS medals to her name but is yet to log a first win. Nevertheless, Lombardi will be one of the major incoming threats to Beaugrand’s reign.
Beth Potter heads up the British contingent and will aim to rally after losing her medal winning streak in Alghero. Prior to that, however, she earned a silver in Yokohama and has happy memories of medalling in Hamburg before. Joining her will be the second of the returning contenders. Georgia Taylor-Brown was the last woman to beat both Beaugrand and Potter in the same race (at WTCS Cagliari in 2023). Having spent the start of the decade taking the fight to muti-world champion Flora Duffy, she now has a new behemoth to hunt.
It should be noted that Taylor-Brown did not have the best 2024 season by her lofty standards and she has not made a WTCS podium since Cagliari 2023. On her day, though, she can beat anyone and a refreshed, revitalised Taylor-Brown is a sight everyone in the sport would love to see. Also among the British numbers will be Olivia Mathias, whose stock is rising following a maiden WTCS medal in Alghero, as well as Sian Rainsley and Kate Waugh.
As to be expected, a large German team is slated to start. While big German contingents have been present at each race this season, their home race in Hamburg is the one that each would love to medal at. To that end, WTCS medallists Lisa Tertsch, Nina Eim and Annika Koch will plan to crash any Beaugrand coronation. Likewise, Tanja Neubert, Selina Klamt, Julia Bröcker and Franka Rust will all look to impress a domestic audience.
Bianca Seregni is in the same boat as Mathias as the freshly-minted WTCS medallist chases a second consecutive medal while leading an Italian trio that also contains Alice Betto and Verena Steinhauser.
Team USA and Team New Zealand will each have four women starting. The former will be represented by Gwen Jorgensen, Taylor Spivey, Erica Ackerlund and Gina Sereno, the latter by Nicole Van Der Kaay, Ainsley Thorpe, Brea Roderick and Eva Goodisson.
Miriam Casillas Garcia, Anna Godoy Contreras and Sara Guerrero Manso form the Spanish trio while Sophie Linn, Kira Hegdeland and Emma Jeffcoat, and Nora Gmür, Alissa Konig and Rebecca Beti will start for Australia and Switzerland, respectively.
Mexico (Rosa Tapia Vidal and Marcela Alvarez Solis), Belgium (Jolien Vermeylen and Nele Dequae), Portugal (Melanie Santos and Maria Tomé) and Japan (Manami Hayashi and Yuko Takahashi) will each have two athletes starting.
Finally, WTCS Yokohama winner Jeanne Lehair will be the sole starter for Luxembourg. The recent winner of the Americas triathlon title, Djenyfer Arnold, will also be the only female starter for Brazil.
Who’s not there?
The athlete with more WTCS Hamburg medals than any other woman, Laura Lindemann, will not be starting. The Olympic champion in the relay will be taking some time away after dropping out of WTCS Alghero close to the race. Otherwise everyone from the top-20 in the world rankings will be present. As such, Hamburg will host a full strength field with the crème de la crème of active WTCS athletes competing.
Four talking points
Taylor-Brown and Lombardi return
If two athletes have the credentials to take on Beaugrand, they are Taylor-Brown and Lombardi. Taylor-Brown was world champion in 2020 (in Hamburg no less), Olympic silver medallist in 2021 and the WTCS overall runner-up in 2022. Lombardi, meanwhile, finished 3rd overall in the WTCS in 2023 and 2024. Moreover, Lombardi was born in 2001 and is still the youngest woman in the top-20 in the world. She could easily make the step up to knock her teammate from her perch.
Equally, this will be their first WTCS start for quite some time. Expecting a win at first bat is therefore asking a lot. Still, the key to Taylor-Brown and Lombardi’s presence may actually be the strengthening of the band against Beaugrand. Thus far, Potter and Tertsch have been the primary challengers to the Olympic champion. With two more athletes capable of attacking her throughout the race also present, the chances of inflicting a killer blow to Beaugrand’s gold medal hopes should go up.
Hadhoum
While Beaugrand and Lombardi (and Periault who should not be forgotten as a WTCS gold medallist) contest contemporary world titles, Hamburg may also be the next step of a future French contender. Ilona Hadhoum will be making her WTCS debut and the 2023 World Junior champion is a serious prospect.
Being in the early stages of her career, the sprint distance on offer in Hamburg should give her a smoother step up to the big leagues. Of course, it is rare to see a debutant threaten the top-10; not everyone can be a Lombardi and finish seconds off a medal on debut. Yet there is one point worth considering when it comes to Hadhoum’s chances. Where did she win the World Junior title two years ago? In Hamburg.
1 in 8
In each of the past four editions of WTCS Hamburg, a German woman has made the podium. Tertsch was responsible for two (in 2022 and 2024), with Lindemann claiming the other two. At this year’s event, an eighth of women’s field in Hamburg is German and, with a numerical advantage, chances of home medal are fairly strong.
Moreover, through Tertsch, Koch and Eim, they have three medallists starting, a number only the French and British teams can match or exceed. Crucially, all three have medalled over the sprint distance before. As a result, through both volume of starters and medallists, Team Germany has a great chance of making it five home medals in a row.
Van Der Kaay
One athlete that has enjoyed major highs in Hamburg previously is Nicole Van Der Kaay. The New Zealand athlete powered to her only WTCS medal at the race back in 2021 and arrives at this year’s edition in strong form. She claimed the Oceania titles over the sprint and super-sprint distances, indicating that her speed should be sharp.
Last year was not Van Der Kaay’s best as she did not breach the top-25 of a Series race. However, her 2025 form looks to be much better and Hamburg tends to be a course that suits her well. It would therefore be no surprise to see Oceania’s best female triathlete ripping another big performance in Germany.
WTCS Hamburg is less than four weeks away so be sure to catch all the latest updates across all World Triathlon channels and catch the racing live on TriathlonLive on 12th July. View the full women’s start list here.