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British beth potter Embarked on to the season-opening WTCS event in fine style, winning gold at the World Championships for the first time Abu Dhabi With the Paris Olympic qualifying competition in progress.
Event kicks off in 2022 with perfect conditions for a huge field of women – world champions Flora Duffy A famous big name does not line up.
Scotland’s Potter sent off Briton Sophie Coldwell in powerful style on the run as she put down the huge mark, with American star Tyler Spivey finishing third on the podium.
Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR) topped the list at 15th – the first time since 2019 that she has finished outside the top two at a WTCS event.
Swimming – Coldwell controlled until penalized
Swimming is all about Coldwell and he stands out from the start – literally!
Leading the pack she pulled a large group behind her and was first out of the water in 9 minutes and 27 seconds to complete the 750m, but just as she reached dry land it appeared and she was given a 10-second time penalty. Getting into the water too soon.
She had to serve in T1, but that was her swimming performance, and she was still able to bike into the front row with five women following her – Vittoria Lopes (BRZ), Summer Rappaport (USA), Lena Meißner ( Germany), plus Spivey and Potter..
Bikes – six of the best give away the rest
Unlike last November’s WTCS Grand Final, the cycling scene is now back in F1 and the top six swimmers will soon find their feet.
It didn’t take long for them to consolidate their advantage, taking a 24-second lead after the first of five 4km loops in a huge chasing group.
The pursuit team grew to more than 40 people, including Taylor-Brown, Cassandre Beaugrand (France) and Katie Zaferes (USA), returning to the sport after the birth of her first child.
But as it turned out, the group wasn’t that big and the gap grew wider – 28 seconds after the second lap, then 36 and 47 seconds, before closing down to 45 seconds in T2.
Is only 5 kilometers too much?
Run – Duel in the Sun
With runners like Porter leading the pack on the back of her run (she set an unofficial world record of 14:41 in 2021), the gap is always too big for the chase to overcome, as it turns out at this point.
The front six were locked together initially, with Lopez dropping back first. But the other five remained in close contact until towards the end of the first of two laps, when Porter kicked on the ramp.
That suddenly changed the entire complexion, a huge gap appeared, and Coldwell was the only one left in range. In fact, she did much more than that when she managed to get back to Potter, and it soon became apparent that there was a huge gap between the two, with Spivey far behind in third.
Potter and Coldwell were neck and neck for most of the final lap until the exact position and tactics of the former kicking the ball in the opening loop paid dividends as it effectively ended the race.
Aside from Potter’s first win at the WTCS, it was Coldwell’s best performance in the series after three bronze medals and Spivey’s first podium finish.
Breakthrough’s dominance is reflected in the fact that the top five are all occupied by those involved, followed by Rappaport and Meißner.
Beaugrand was the best of the rest at sixth, with nine of the top 10 consisting of British, American, French and German athletes, with the exception of Austria’s Verena Steinhauser, who was ninth.
2023 Abu Dhabi World Triathlon Championships Series Results
Friday, March 3, 2023 – Elite Women
750m / 20k / 5k
- 1. Beth Potter (GBR) – 57:56
- 2. Sophie Coldwell (UK) – 58:14
- 3. Taylor Spivey (USA) – 58:27
- 4. Summer Rappaport (USA) – 58:35
- 5. Lena Meissner (GER) – 58:39
- 6. Cassandre Beaugrand (France) – 58:39
- 7. Nina Eim (Germany) – 58:45
- 8. Emma Lombardi (France) – 58:46
- 9. Verena Steinhauser (Austria) – 58:48
- 10. Lisa Tertsch (Germany) – 58:53
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