A supremely consistent season may not have finished as she wanted in the Pontevedra Championship Finals, but Jeanne Lehair (LUX) returns for her now-traditional season-shutter World Cup outing, at the sprint-distance Hong Kong on Saturday ahead of the rearranged WTCS Abu Dhabi.
But the challengers will be many for the third stop of the four-race Asian tour, held over a 750m swim, 5-lap 20km bike and 2-lap 5km run, with medals and LA28 Olympic Qualification points on the line.
The women race first at 8:45am local time (1:45am CET), followed by the men at 10:30am (3:30am CET), and the Mixed Relay follows on Sunday at 2pm (7am CET), all live on TriathlonLive.io.
Luxembourg’s Lehair wears the number one after finishing the Series in overall 7th and wondering what-if after taking 19th in Pontevedra. Hong Kong is her first start since, will be an ideal marker ahead of Abu Dhabi, and a chance for some final hit outs before the winter break.
Anqi Huang (CHN) arrives in prime form. In Tongyeong, the 25-year-old ran 16:36 for the 5km, second only to winner Xinyu Lin, and crossed the line just three seconds behind her compatriot despite serving a 10-second penalty. A week earlier in Beijing she finished fourth over the standard distance.
Diana Isakova (RUS) wears the two and brings serious momentum after winning the Rome World Cup in early October off a 15:48 run. She was also seventh at both WTCS Weihai and the Pontevedra Grand Final. Teammates Valentina Riasova – a three-time World Cup podium placer, all in Asia - and Iana Chenskaia, ninth in Beijing, also start.
Zuzanna Michalickova (SVK) is back to World Cup racing after her first ever gold in Rio, Africa Continental Champion Shanae Williams will want to translate those winning ways to the World Cup landscape and Portugal’s Melanie Santos hits her first start since Asuncion after another injury setback.
Italy’s Bianca Seregni wears the three on the back of Mediterranean Games gold in Taranto in August and fifth in Rome. She heads a strong Italian trio alongside two-time Olympian Verena Steinhauser, ninth in Tongyeong, and Beatrice Mallozzi, a double bronze medallist in Rio and Asuncion in August.
Bethany Cook (GBR) was seventh in Tongyeong, 18 seconds off the win, and lines up alongside Eve Whitaker for Great Britain, while the home crowd will be right behind Hilda Choi, Bailee Brown and Cade Wright, buoyed by their team’s Asian Games Mixed Relay bronze medal.
Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal (MEX) and Emma Jeffcoat (AUS) also bring plenty of Olympic pedigree, and at the other end of the experience scale, Switzerland’s Junior Worlds silver medallist Anouk Danna (SUI) arrives off a European Cup win in Alanya.
