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After hosting a fantastic finale at last year’s WTCS Finals, Leo Berger and Flora Duffy Home of the world triathlon champions, Abu Dhabi will once again host the world’s finest short-course triathletes as they look to kick off their 2023 season in style.
In the crucial year of qualifying for the 2024 Olympic Games, paris test With games scheduled for August, athletes will want to see what’s going well in winter and what needs to be adjusted heading into the crunch of the season this summer.
However, the competition will remain as brutal as ever, with both the men’s and women’s podiums at the 2022 WTCS Grand Final, with Flora Duffy returning to the United Arab Emirates for another crown.
Start times, classes and how to watch live
The race in Abu Dhabi kicks off on Friday 3 March at the Yas Marina Circuit, with the Athletes’ Village centered around the famous pit lane at the Etihad Airways F1 Grand Prix site.
The women’s competition will start at 12:00 noon local time (8:00 am GMT), with the men’s competition starting two hours later at 2:00 pm local time (10:00 am GMT).
The race, the first in the WTCS 2023 series, will be held within sprint distance. The swim will be a 750m lap of the pier before athletes run the 250m to T1. From there, they will complete five 4km laps on their bikes, then run two 2.5km laps before heading to the finish straight.
The race will be streamed live on TriathlonLive, the world triathlon subscription service, and can also be watched for free in the UK on BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website, the BBC Sport app and the BBC Red Button.
2023 WTCS Abu Dhabi Elite Women’s Championship
Just over three months ago, Georgia Taylor-Brown Broken heart at Olympic distance race in Abu Dhabi Flora Duffy Emerging on the run for another world title, as well as her Commonwealth and Olympic victories, all at the Briton’s expense.
This time around, Duffy won’t be on the starting line as she’s still recovering from a knee injury she suffered last year. However, that doesn’t mean Taylor-Brown will be a walk in the park as she chases her first win in Abu Dhabi after finishing runner-up in 2021 and 2022.
The German will be the first to return to Abu Dhabi after finishing third in the 2022 Grand Final Lena Meissnershe stunned the field, and likely her federation, with a seventh-place finish at the German Sprint Championships in 2022, recording her first-ever WTCS podium.
with her compatriots lisa techie, annabel noll, Marlene Gomez – Goggles and Nina Em, Germany will have five athletes from last year’s WTCS top 30 and will look to take home some silverware. All of this was done in the absence of 2022 European Championship runner-up and national star Laura Lindemann.
Looking further afield, there’s an unusually strong American team, with the fourth-ranked athlete in the 2022 WTCS Taylor Spivey Lead a group that includes the most recent Arena Games Triathlon MontrealI am a winner Gina Sereno2022 WTCS Top 20 Athletes kirsten kasper and summer rapportplus the return of Katie Zafres.
Zaferes, who will play for the first time after August 2021 give birth, will be hoping to get off to a good start after returning to racing at the venue where she has had success before. The Olympic medalist won in Abu Dhabi in 2019.
With a full starting roster of 60 players, there are plenty of names to consider, with the French trio Cassandra Bergrand, Leonie Perriot and emma lombardiplus Miriam Casillas-Garcia As the race for a place in the 2024 Olympic Games intensifies, Spain takes its place among a group of powerful Europeans who will be looking to assess their rivalry and their compatriots.
Taylor-Brown isn’t the only podium hopeful among British women, Sophie Caldwell and beth potter There may also be features.Finally, rising British stars Kate Waugh After winning the game, will perform well in happy hunting grounds World U23 Champion November is here.
The full list of women’s starters can be found at here.
WTCS Abu Dhabi 2023 Men’s Classic
In the men’s game, Leo Berger In the last WTCS event in Abu Dhabi, he won his first WTCS title just 20 points ahead of Alex Yee.
Join Bergere in French blue, white and red as a WTCS winner vincent louis and dorian conix, the French trio are likely to evaluate the venue and each other as they vie for a place to represent France at next year’s home Olympics. With this deep strength, louis recently told us“I think it’s going to be an uphill battle at first just to be part of the team.”
This Friday, everyone worth a shot (except Jonny Brownlee) will line up on the pontoon at Yas Marina, with last year’s Grand Finalist Bergere on the podium, Morgan Pearson USA and Belgium Jelle Jeans All comebacks, plus the WTCS series 2nd and 3rd place players, alex yu and Hayden Wilde.
Especially Wilde and Yee, who were considered favorites for the world title until the last second in 2022, will look to put last season’s Finals disappointment behind them as the Olympic medalist looks to recapture them this time around. The authority in the field is circular.
Speaking of Olympic Medalists, Norwegian Christian Blumenfeldtthis tokyo championwill start from one year long distance racingand eventually he won St. George’s Triathlon World Championships and triathlon 70.3 World ChampionshipsStarted preparing for his Olympic title defense.
by his side, Kona winner Gustave Eden will abide by the starting line, plus Bergen World Cup third place thorns, as the latter continued to battle Casper Stornes for the elusive third place on the Norwegian Olympic team. Storns opted to start his season at the New Plymouth World Cup.
elsewhere, Jacob Bertweiser Returns to WTCS scene after recent win IRONMAN 70.3 Tasmaniaand Henry Schuman Also heading to the UAE after some recent successes second place Triathlon Montreal at the Arena Games.
Another recent player from the southern hemisphere to reach the podium is Kyle Smithwhile he may be better known for his long-term exploits, he is working his way up to New Zealand’s qualifiers paris olympics. He was recently at Wanaka Continental Cupwhich at least shows that this is not just a pipe dream.
In the end, the British contingent consisted entirely of Alex Yee and barclay izardalong with other home-grown talent on the men’s side such as Jonny Brownlee, Ben Dijkstra, Grant Shelton and Daniel Dixon, who opted to compete in Arena Triathlon or the Continental Cup and World Cup to start their season.
The full men’s starting roster can be found at here.
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