Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde, in the men’s category, and Beaugrand and Potter, in the women’s category, will fight for the title
Susana Rodríguez leads the ‘Triarmada’ in the Paralympic Triathlon World Cup
MADRID, 22 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The British Alex Yee and the New Zealander Hayden Wilde will play this Saturday for the title in the Grand Final of the World Series, which will be held in Pontevedra, where on Sunday the mystery of who is the women’s champion will also be cleared up, with the French Cassandre Beaugrand and the British Beth Potter as big favorites.
The Galician city, residence of great references such as the five-time world champion Javi Gómez Noya, will experience a heart-stopping weekend in which it will receive hundreds of athletes. The action will begin this Friday with the World Super Sprint distance for age group triathletes.
Saturday will begin with the Paralympic Triathlon World Cup (9:00 a.m.), to continue with the men’s U-23 competition (2:20 p.m.) and end with the elite men’s final (5:20 p.m.). On Sunday it will be the turn of the ‘Standard’ distance for the age groups (8:30 a.m.), the Aquabike world championship (10:30 a.m.), the U-23 women’s final (2:00 p.m.) and the women’s elite (4:45 p.m.), and It will conclude with the mixed Paralympic triathlon relay (7:15 p.m.).
In the elite men’s category, Yee, silver in Tokyo and second overall last year, and Wilde, third in both the last Games and the last World Series, go to Pontevedra as the great contenders to replace the Frenchman Léo Bergère , which caused a surprise last season by winning the title in Abu Dhabi. Separated by only 56.95 points, the Briton leads the standings with three victories, two for the Frenchman.
The Portuguese Vasco Vilaca, third in the general standings, 215 behind the lead, awaits any slip-up of the first two, but also Bergère, although he needs Yee and Wilde to be eighth and seventh or less and for the Portuguese to finish fifth at most to retain the title. qualification.
The current Olympic champion, the Norwegian Kristian Blummenfelt, will also participate; the British Jonathan Brownlee, gold in Tokyo in mixed relay and silver and bronze in individual in Rio 2016 and London 2012; the South Africans Richard Murray and Henri Schoeman; the French Pierre Le Corre and Dorian Coninx; Australian Matthew Hauser; the Hungarian Csongor Lehmann; the Brazilian Miguel Hidalgo or the German Tim Hellwig.
Antonio Serrat, Roberto Sánchez Mantecón, the current European champion David Castro, Sergio Baxter and Alberto González will be the Spanish representatives in the event, on a Saturday in which the Under-23 event will also be held, with Esteban Basanta, José Ignacio Gálvez and David Cantero participating.
In the women’s category, where up to nine athletes arrive with mathematical options to be champions, the French Cassandre Beaugrand (3341.45 points) and the British Beth Potter (3309.38 points) are the best positioned to take the title, which last year won the Bermudian Flora Duffy.
Potter opened the season by winning in Abu Dhabi and climbed to the top of the podium again in Montreal, but Beaugrand emerged in the final stretch of the season to win the last two events, those held in Hamburg and Sunderland.
However, neither of them can relax, since the French Emma Lombardi (2946.16) or the American Taylor Spivey (2836.90) have real options in case the first two fail. Much less real are the possibilities of the American Summer Rappaport, the Mexican Rosa María Tapia Vidal, the Luxembourger Jeanne Lehair or the British Sophie Coldwell. In addition, North American Katie Zaferes, champion in 2019, returns to the competition.
The Spanish Miriam Casillas, Anna Godoy, Noelia Juan, Marta Pintanel and Sara Guerrero will participate in the test in Galician lands, as will María Casals, Iratxe Arenal and Natalia Castro in the Under-23 test that same Sunday.
The race, which will take place at an Olympic distance, will cover two swimming laps between the Ponte dos Tirantes and the pedestrian walkway, a 40-kilometer cycling segment of eight laps along a fairly flat course and four laps for a total of 10 kilometers along the historic center of Pontevedra.
SUSANA RODRÍGUEZ LEADS THE ‘TRIARMADA’ IN THE PARALYMPIC WORLD CUP
On the other hand, this Saturday the Paralympic Triathlon World Cup will also be held, vital to score points in the qualifying ranking for the next Paris 2024 Games, with sixteen Spanish athletes in the running.
Tokyo Olympic champion Susana Rodríguez and her guide Sara Löehr will compete in the PTVI category (athletes with visual impairments who run with a guide). The Galician, who won continental gold in June, has not competed since July but will seek her fifth consecutive world title at home. José Luis García-Diego Mentrida and Héctor Catalá-Carlos Oliver, silver in Tokyo 2020, will participate in this same category.
Among the athletes with physical disabilities who compete standing, categories from PTS2 for those with the greatest impairment to PTS5 for the mildest, stand out Dani Molina (PTS3), who will try to retain the title of champion; Alejandro Sánchez (PTS4), bronze in Tokyo; Lionel Morales (PTS2), world runner-up last year; Marta Francés (PTS4), bronze in the 2022 World Cup and recent European champion; Rakel Mateo (PTS2), third in the last European Championship; Kini Carrasco (PTS3) and Jairo Ruiz (PTS5).
In the PTWC category for triathletes who use a handbike in the cycling section and a wheelchair in the running section, there will be Eva Moral, a bronze medalist in Tokyo who, after becoming a mother, returned to competition in June with a gold in the Madrid European Championship.
In addition, there will be five members of the CaixaBank Paralympic Promises Team: Andrea Miguélez (PTS5), Cristina Miranda (PTS5), Carmen González (PTS4), Nil Riudavets (PST4), who already achieved continental silver three months ago, and José Cristóbal Ramos (PTWC). The last four will compete in their first World Cup event in Pontevedra.
The competition will put six women’s titles and as many men’s titles at stake for athletes with physical or visual disabilities and paralysis or brain damage, and coincides with the finals of the World Series for able-bodied triathletes.
The Paralympic athletes will start between 9:00 a.m. and 11:15 a.m. and will complete a 750-meter swim through the Lérez River, 20 kilometers by bicycle with four laps of a non-technical circuit with a single climb, and a 5-kilometer run. on foot, with three laps of a flat route.