With three wins in her last four WTCS starts, there’s little doubt that Beth Potter is the in-form athlete heading to this weekend’s WTCS Yokohama. On a course she knows well, in conditions likely to be much improved on last year’s chilly soak-through, the Brit will be looking to go one better than her 2025 silver when the horn sounds on 16 May. 

It was Jeanne Lehair (LUX) who beat her 12 months ago and arrives on the back of sharing last month’s podium in Samarkand, but there are big-name returnees in the form of T100 Champion Kate Waugh and Emma Lombardi of France, and a frustrated defending World Champion in Lisa Tertsch, 33rd in Samarkand, to reckon with in Japan. 

It's a familiar, Olympic-distance challenge around the iconic harbour, where the weather is set fair and hot for the gruelling 1500m swim, 40km bike and 10km run course. Watch it all unfold on TriathlonLive.tv on Saturday from 10.15am local time. 

Potter x Lehair x Tertsch round two

Last year, Beth Potter’s 33m38s was the fastest run of the day, but not quite fast enough to catch Jeanne Lehair who had gapped the entire field early in the 10km then held tough long enough to take the tape for the first time in her career. Last month, Potter put together an untouchable 10km to win in Samarkand and show she is right back in the kind of form that earned her the 2023 world title. A second win this weekend would really put the early pressure on her title rivals.

It was a barnstorming swim on the heels of Therese Feuersinger that set up Lehair’s debut Series gold, instilling a new confidence within Luxembourg’s number one that was in evidence again as she ripped another podium in Samarkand. That remarkable solo Yokohama run in the rain is what will be living in her head, though, as well as her out-witting two of the last three world champions on her way to the line. 

Lisa Tertsch’s early bike crash in Samarkand may have delayed her title defence, but what had to become a training race in the end will have left the reigning world champion's competitive edge even more razor sharp heading back to the site of her 2025 bronze medal success.  

With no Leonie Periault or Cassandre Beaugrand for France, Emma Lombardi returns to lead the line for the tricolore, and on a course where she made a stunning Series debut, scoring 4th here back in 2022 at just 21 years-old. Since then she has rarely been out of the top 5, but is yet to taste WTCS victory. With only four outings in 18 months to her name, the test will be to find race-sharpness quickly in Yokohama, where she can always be a threat. 

Britain's T100 World Champion Kate Waugh makes her first Series start in almost a year and will use the race to judge where she is at over the shorter distance at the start of the long, slow build towards LA28. 

Laura Lindemann arrives fresh off a trademark win and a thrilling sprint finish against Waugh in Chengdu just a week ago, and hoping for no ill effects from that race and the travel to Japan. Sian Rainsley and Jess Fullagar will complete the GB line up, with Series silverware becoming an ever closer target for both, Australia’s U23 world champion Richelle Hill should relish the chance to test herself against the best in the world at her first WTCS. 

The USA team is packed with top-tier experience and firepower in the form of Taylor Spivey, Kirsten Kasper and Gwen Jorgensen, and Sweden’s Tilda Mansson will look to build on a promising Samarkand opener as she continues her return from injury. 

WTCS YOKOHAMA
FULL START LIST
16 MAY 10.15AM LOCAL
TRIATHLONLIVE.TV