Winner here 12 months ago, currently sitting pretty at the top of the World Triathlon Championship Series rankings, Australia’s Matt Hauser goes into Saturday’s WTCS Hamburg as the man to beat.

The home of triathlon in Germany, the city-centre course gears up for another top-tier showdown that will bring 2025 to the halfway point in the chase for the world titles. A sprint-distance challenge, it packs in a 750m Binnenalster Lake swim (complete with infamous tunnel segment just as the exit approaches), a tight and technical 20km bike and then 5km all-in run to the finish.

For nearly a quarter of a century, Hamburg has been welcoming the best in the world, and the 24^th edition promises to be one for the ages. Watch the action unfold on TriathlonLive.tv from 16:35 local time on Saturday.

Hauser wears the trousers

First onto the pontoon will be Matt Hauser. With a win and two silvers from his three outings to date this year, his form and consistency has been impressive. First or second out of the water at each, aggressive on the bike and still able to produce the goods on the run, Hauser continues to look every bit the champion-in-waiting at his home Grand Final come October.

Before any thoughts of that, though, there is still plenty of racing to come. The last WTCS round in Alghero saw Miguel Hidalgo blunt Hauser’s typically fast finish by building an unassailable lead straight out of T2. Round one in Abu Dhabi saw Hayden Wilde out sprint his Aussie rival. In between, in Yokohama, Hauser clocked the fastest 10km of the day. Last year he bossed Hamburg, gold coming after the fastest 5km of the day: 13m40s. 

Hidalgo up for more fireworks

Brazil’s Hidalgo sits almost 400 points away from the top spot in second, but the confidence will be flowing from his, and his country’s, first ever Series win in Alghero at the end of May. It was a huge month for the 25-year-old, piecing together the race he always knew he had in him, the gold following bronze in Yokohama. Now, he will want to be in the mix once again off the bike and push on to top his previous best 7^th place here after a chastening debut over the T100 distance in Vancouver.

The current Lusophone men’s triathlon takeover continues with Portugal’s Vasco Vilaça and Ricardo Batista separated by 105 points and a major French absentee from the action this weekend, Leo Bergere. It was back in 2020 that Vilaça cemented his growing reputation here with silver in the standalone World Championships, following that with two more seconds in 2023 and 2024. How he would savour a first time on the top step on Saturday.

Paquet a threat if packs come together

Canadian pair Charles Paquet and Tyler Mislawchuk have never fully clicked with the course here, both scoring just one top 10 here to date, but both safe in the knowledge they have a podium-capacity kick to call upon. Spain’s Roberto Sanchez has looked close to his sharpest so far in 2025 and could well run into medal contention, as could his U23 world champion teammate David Cantero, the fastest man over the 5km at Abu Dhabi’s season opener.

Britain’s Ben Dijkstra has finally landed on the Series scene in 2025 with two top tens so far, and the 2023 World Champion Dorian Coninx continues to build back to his best despite illness forcing him out of Alghero. Henry Graf also missed out there after falling ill ahead of Yokohama, his 4^th place in Abu Dhabi heralding the arrival of another promising young talent through the German triathlon pipeline.

Csongor Lehmann (HUN) will hope to build on his Tiszaujvaros World Cup win last weekend, while Brazil’s Manoel Messias starts on the blue carpet for the first time since Abu Dhabi, having run the fastest recorded Ironman Marathon of all time in Brazil last month.

The start could be crucial, though, with the likes of Mark Devay (HUN), Max Stapley (GBR), Tayler Reid (NZL) and Alessio Crociani (ITA) likely to dart the swim along with no.1 Hauser. A small unit out front would need serious bike firepower to stay away like they did in Alghero, though. Without Bergere around to help drive it, this could quickly become a big-pack day for the men just as we saw last year, and that would mean a 5km shoot-out to savour. 

FULL WTCS HAMBURG START LIST
TRIATHLONLIVE.TV 
12 JULY 2025
16:35 CEST

NOTE FOR EDITORS:
The 2025 World Triathlon Championship Series comprises SEVEN RACES plus the Championship Finals.
A Series win is worth 1,000 POINTS.
The winner of the Championship Finals receives 1,250 POINTS.
Continental Championship winners receive 400 points.
The number of points reduces by 7.5% with each position thereafter.
(WTCS Abu Dhabi was worth 750 points as per the 2024 rules)
The top THREE points scores from the season PLUS those earned in the Finals will be combined to determine the 2025 WORLD CHAMPION.