At a time when winter sports are still in full flow – indeed, this time next year we will only be midway through the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics – watching many of the world’s best triathletes line up for the opening WTCS of the 2025 campaign was a little disorienting. As the racing unfolded on the sun-kissed Hudayriat Island, it was easy to wonder whether we had collectively lost track of what time of year it is.
When men’s victor Hayden Wilde broke away on the bike with Simon Westermann and Tjebbe Kaindl for company, the uncertainty grew. Wilde and Westermann away at the front: were we back in Torremolinos again? Over the course of two lightning-fast races, though, any lingering rust was shaken from both the legs of the athletes and the minds of the spectators. Read on to see five of the talking points we took away from the action.
A sweep
One obvious headline was the lockout of the women’s podium by the German team. In the latter stages of the run, Leonie Periault, the winner of the 2024 season opener, faced off against Lisa Tertsch, Laura Lindemann and Nina Eim. Here, there was further Torremolinos déjà vu to be found after Periault and Tertsch had faced off at the WTCS Final. As in Torremolinos, Periault had no answer to Tertsch’s finishing kick, nor could she follow the procession of newly-designed German tri-suits as they hoovered up the medals.
We’ve seen podium sweeps before with the Australian women in Hamburg in 2011 and the Norwegian men in Bermuda in 2018, to name a couple of examples, but this was a real feather in the cap for a country that has produced triathlon talent, and women’s talent in particular, on an industrial scale lately. With Tanja Neubert backing up her 4th place from Weihai last year with a 6th place yesterday, the Mixed Team Relay Olympic champions could not have asked for a better start to the year from their female contingent.
A rise
There was further German joy with Henry Graf nailing a fantastic 4th place finish. Last month, he shared with World Triathlon how he hoped to build upon his experience of winning the world title in the Mixed Team Relay last summer. In Abu Dhabi, he certainly made a leap forward.
Graf hardly put a foot wrong in his second ever Series appearance. He was the 4th man out the water before settling into the lead pack on the bike. On his Series debut in Hamburg, the swim caught him out a little so his showing in the water already represented a promising improvement. It was on the run, however, that he really turned heads.
A smartly-paced effort saw him climb through the ranks in the closing stages. The run has been a point of focus for Graf, albeit against a much more limited mileage than several of his rivals, and his work showed as he reeled in likes of Adrian Briffod and Ben Dijkstra - who himself had an impressive debut race - after they had pushed the pace early in the 5km. In a way, it was the complete inverse of his compatriot Jonas Schomburg’s flying starts to the run and it demonstrated remarkable composure. With his 4th place under his belt, it will be fascinating to see how Graf progresses through the season.
A new hope?
Amid the German domination in the women’s race, there was a very promising finish for Swedish prospect Tilda Månsson. The former World Junior champion came home in 12th place to earn the highest finish of her WTCS career thus far.
It was by no means a perfect race for the prodigy. Nevertheless, one particular aspect she will likely take positives from was her showing in the water. Being so young (Månsson was the youngest woman in the field by far, and a full 18 years younger than her oldest rival, Gwen Jorgensen) it is no stretch to imagine that the multiple World Cup winner will continue to get better.
On that note, it is pertinent to highlight a standout running session from her winter training block. Månsson’s session consisted of 8 reps of 1km with 75 seconds rest. She averaged a cool 3:07 at a lactate level of only 6.0, a frankly obscene performance all things considered. With that kind of running ability stored up, Månsson will no doubt eye up a maiden WTCS top-10, and more, in the coming races.
A split
If, at this point, the words “ridiculously fast run split” do not flash up in your minds at the mention of David Cantero del Campo’s name, chances are you have not been paying attention. The reigning World U23 champion bossed the run last season, claiming the fastest split at every race he finished. In Abu Dhabi, he was not ready to break his streak.
While attention was on Hayden Wilde and Matthew Hauser as they battled for the gold up front, few noticed the fastest man on the course was actually further back. Having arrived in T2 in the chase pack, Cantero uncorked a monstrous 5km time of 14:05 to launch himself into 9th place and a personal best finish. For reference, Wilde and Hauser only clocked 14:13.
Like Månsson, there will be parts of Cantero’s race that he will look to improve. Such is his ability on the run, though, he essentially brings a bazooka to a sword fight, and if the rest of the field did not have warning sirens blaring about his rise, they will now.
No country for old men (and women)
A common thread of this article has been the promising performances of several young talents. Conversely, Abu Dhabi was not quite the day some of the more experienced members of the elite field may have planned. Only two athletes aged over 30 made the top-10 in either the men’s or women’s race: Leonie Periault and Adrien Briffod. Both were born in 1994 so are also hardly deep into their 30s either.
Naturally, there is a caveat here that Abu Dhabi was so early in the year that it was likely to throw up a couple of unexpected twists. To lean into stereotypes, perhaps some of the older members of the field need more preparation to rest and dial in for the season after their winter work. By contrast, the youngsters don’t yet truly know what it is to be tired.
Still, WTCS Abu Dhabi provoked a question. Is triathlon becoming a sport for the young? Obviously one can only read so much into a single race. However, if we zoom out, since the start of the 2020 WTCS season, only five athletes over the age of 30 have won a race. (They have been Flora Duffy, Beth Potter, Vincent Luis, Pierre Le Corre and Morgan Pearson.) To put that into context, six athletes under the age of 30 struck gold in 2024 alone, a year in which multiple winners were at a premium given the dominance of Cassandre Beaugrand and Alex Yee.
With that in mind, maybe the age-based results of Abu Dhabi were not exceptional. Maybe there is something to the trend. Maybe, just maybe, short distance triathlon is a young person’s game.
Tune in to TriathlonLive today for more action from Abu Dhabi with the first World Mixed Team Relay Series event of the year.
