After the start of August saw a brief respite in the international triathlon calendar, the sport returned with a bang at the weekend. Hayden Wilde was back to achieve what seemed impossible only a few months prior. Never one to let his rival hog the limelight, Alex Yee then stepped up to deliver a head-turning performance of his own. With European titles also on the line and continental races going down to the wire, find out everything that happened below in the latest Monday Morning Mix.
T100 London
Less than 100 days had passed since Hayden Wilde’s crash in Tokyo. Such was the extent of his injuries, it would have been understandable to assume his season was over. Well, just as the old line of those who assume goes, Wilde made a fool of anyone who thought that was the case. He dominated T100 London, winning by over a minute, to insert himself back into the chase for this year’s world title. Given his layoff, he will realistically only get better as the coming weeks and months progress, a grim prospect for his rivals. Mika Noodt withstood the flying Jelle Geens – who was the fastest runner of the field – to take second. Geens’ third place nonetheless put him in the series lead.
In the women’s race, Lucy Charles-Barclay led a British 1-2 as she claimed a maiden T100 gold medal. Hers was a consummate performance. She was the fastest swimmer and runner, while in between she clocked the second fastest bike split, a mere 8 seconds slower than bronze medallist Taylor Knibb. Taking silver between Charles-Barclay and Knibb was Kate Waugh for her third T100 podium of the season. View the full results here.
Europe Triathlon Xterra Cross Championships Prachatice
Felix Forissier followed up his cross triathlon world title with the European crown in the Czech Republic. From the off, he was shadowed by former world champion Arthur Serrieres yet managed to gain a little over 20 seconds by the end of the 1.5km swim and 31.5km bike. It was on the run that Forissier made his decisive move, ripping a field-leading 10.5km split of 42:24. The next fastest man was Jens Emil Sloth Nielsen of Denmark and he managed to overhaul Serrieres in the race for 2nd place. For this year, however, Forissier’s supremacy in the men’s field cannot be questioned.
There could hardly have been a more intriguing winner in the women’s event. Barbara Riveros placed 3rd at the World Cross Triathlon Championships in Pontevedra earlier in the summer but converted that to gold with a superlative showing in Prachatice. She took down 2024 world champion Marta Menditto, who settled for the silver medal, as she produced a near-perfect display. Riveros will be making her return to the WTCS later this month and, despite her four-year absence, her gold medal indicates that she could be building towards something special. From the home team, Aneta Grabmuller Sodati rounded out the podium in 3rd place. View the full results here.
In addition, Prachatice hosted the Europe Triathlon Xterra Cross Duathlon Championships earlier in the week. Sloth Nielsen won the men’s race with Noemi Bogiatto triumphing in the women’s event.
Americas Cup Kelowna
The men’s race was the kind that made you look twice to check you hadn’t made a mistake. The man many would have assumed to be the fastest runner going into the weekend turned out to be the fastest swimmer. Then, a little over 40 minutes later, this supposed fastest runner was beaten in a runner race. To cap it all off, the eventual winner crossed the line to claim a first ever international win, defeating a World Cup winner in the process. As with Wilde in London, Kelowna showed making assumptions in this sport can often be a fool’s game.
Reese Vannerson was the first man out of the water in the sprint distance event, a very promising point in what has sometimes been his weaker discipline. The bike saw the field come back together, setting up a running race between Vannerson and a litany of rapid Americans and Canadians. Among them was Keller Norland. The young American had not quite made waves in the same way as his compatriot but that changed as he threw down a fantastic run split to beat Vannerson by 7 seconds. Shortly after, in the race for 3rd, Martin Sobey and Pavlos Antoniades had to be separated in a photo finish, with the former ultimately taking the bronze medal.
Meanwhile, a second straight Americas Cup win was added to the books by Desirae Ridenour. Continuing a terrific season in which she has claimed a World Cup win and medalled at the French Grand Prix, Ridenour was the second woman out of the water before helping to establish a five-woman breakaway. She had three other Canadians for company, including Sophia Howell, with Britney Brown the lone American. The group shut down the chase pack’s hopes of winning over the 20km bike before Ridenour put her fellow leaders to the sword on the run, beating Howell into 2nd by 31 seconds. Further back, Americas Cup winner Joy Gill dropped a field-best 16:20 5km run split to vault herself into 3rd place. The race, however, belonged almost entirely to Ridenour. View the full results here.
Europe Junior Cup Izvorani
Mirroring Ridenour’s home success in Kelowna, Carol Popa brought home the gold medal for the Romanian team in Izvorani. Over the super sprint distance, Popa produced a textbook performance. He was the fastest swimmer to put himself in control of the early proceedings and then controlled the race from the front pack. Then, in the two-lap 2.5km run, he made no mistake as he ripped the best split of the day to win by 7 seconds. Taking 2nd and 3rd were the British duo Reuben Wadey and Alex Dack.
If the home team enjoyed Popa’s win, the women’s race was much more of an Anglo-Italian affair. The two countries locked out the top-12 with Britain taking the win. The race winner was Kitty Scott, one of the youngest women in the field. Born in 2010, she was making the first start of her international career and she did so with aplomb. She lost a little time to the top swimmers but the field came back together on the bike. Thereafter, she clocked the best run of the race to win by 4 seconds. Fellow Brit Lauren Mitchell was the next over the line while Italy’s Chiara Guarisco completed the podium. View the full results here.
Around the world
Finally, it was almost inevitable that Alex Yee would not simply let Wilde have the plaudits all to himself. On the same weekend his beloved Crystal Palace won the Community Shield in England, Yee raced over the 5000m on the track in Belgium, popping a new personal best of 13:13.89. Not only does that nudge his best time back ahead of Wilde’s (who had overtaken Yee’s time in April 2024), but it reaffirms that Yee’s running speed promises to fire on all cylinders at WTCS French Riviera later this month. With a 5km run to close out the sprint distance race on the French coast, it is hard to see Yee as anything other than the favourite, despite his absence from international racing.
