Amid the final tranche of World Triathlon Cups in 2025, Team World Triathlon athletes were supported through a pair of events as they sought to build further experience ahead of the 2026 campaign and the opening of the 2028 Olympic qualification window. Vina del Mar at the start of November and Tongyeong this past weekend were the two races at which World Triathlon provided assistance to selected Team athletes. As the Team gathers momentum towards its tilt for Olympic spots, there were plenty of positives to carry forward from both races.

Vina del Mar

As a home race for Diego Moya (CHI), the Paris Olympian opted against using the Development budget when starting in Vina del Mar. He was nonetheless the star of the Team as he rocketed to 7^th place. Behind him, Julian Birkel (RSA) built upon his previous Team outing at the Rome World Cup with a 35^th place finish. Alejandro Rodriguez Diez (CUB), a silver medallist in Huatulco earlier this year, followed in 42^nd place, while Vitalii Vorontsov (UKR) and Gabriel Terán Carvajal (ECU) turned in results of 45^th and 51^st, respectively. The youngest member of the Team, Romania’s Carol Popa, placed 50^th. For Popa, it was a particularly tough turnaround having travelled from the World Junior Championships in Wollongong.

Meanwhile, Raquel Solis Guerrero (CRC) placed 31^st in the women’s race and Alvaro Campos Solano (CRC) opted to tackle the Vina del Mar Americas Cup, earning 17^th place finish.

The experience gained in Vina del Mar already showed a week later at the San Pedro De La Paz World Cup. While this event was not formally supported by the Team, several members remained in Chile to race. Rodriguez, for example, rose from 42^nd to 16^th. Birkel and Terán also displayed signs of progress with their respective finishes of 30^th and 33^rd. For his part, home star Moya revved up the crowds on his way to another solid finish in 11^th.

Tongyeong

Over the weekend, the second supported event took place at the Tongyeong World Cup. The headline result came from Tjasa Vrtacic (SLO). After a string of strong World Cup results across 2025, Vrtacic broke into the top-10 for the first time with her 8^th place finish. Behind her, Martina Ayu Pratiwi (INA) ended the day in 44^th place on her Team debut. She notably won an Asia Cup event at the start of the season. Paris Olympian Manami Iijima (GUM) unfortunately did not finish in Tongyeong.

Two men were back racing as part of the Team. Tzu I Pan (TPE) and Rashif Amila Yaqin (INA) both raced in Samarkand earlier this year and built upon that experience with solid showings in Tongyeong. In what proved to be a running race in which seconds separated athletes throughout the field, Pan placed 31^st while Amila crossed in 46^th place.

Similarly to Vina del Mar, Team members were also afforded another opportunity to race at a World Cup thanks to the double-header on the schedule, in this case a week earlier in Miyazaki. There, Vrtacic placed 18^th while Pan scored a result of 46^th.

With this positive end to 2025, World Triathlon Development’s journey to LA 2028 looks set for an exciting next step in 2026. Find out more about the Team here.