Hong Kong is the destination for the second World Cup stop of the year, as this stunning harbour city makes its debut as host of the circuit in 2024.
A sprint-distance course awaits the athletes, the 750m swim off Wanchai Promenade transitioning to a 5-lap, 20km bike and finishing with a 2-lap, 5km run to the gold. After the cancellation of WTCS Abu Dhabi earlier in the month, it is not just the golds that the athletes are eyeing, but precious Paris 2024 qualification points. Full coverage live and on demand on TriathlonLive.tv.
Rappaport wears the #1 as US point race intensifies
Summer Rappaport may have finished the 2023 season outside the Series top 10 but, having been denied the bumper points of a Pontevedra Finals through injury after crashing out of a Super League race, 11th place doesn’t tell the full story. Bronze in Montreal and five top 10 finishes in her last campaign, Rappaport will be hungry to go again. An 8-time World Cup winner, this would be a great time to show the USA’s Paris 2024 selectors where her form is.
No fewer than three other Americans start in the top 10 in Hong Kong, Kirsten Kasper, Erika Ackerlund and Katie Zaferes all in the chase for an Olympic place alongside the already qualified Taylor Knibb, Zaferes hoping to bounce back from a heat-hit DNF at the Americas Championships in Miami a fortnight ago. Taylor Spivey and Gwen Jorgensen head to Lievin in a week’s time.
Swiss Derron on song
Julie Derron has been quietly putting together a string of strong results over the past three years that have left her the natural heir to Nicola Spirig’s crown in the red suit of Switzerland. A run of back-to-back 2021 World Cup wins in Valencia and Karlovy Vary were book-ended by silvers in Arzachena, and while those podiums haven’t been forthcoming at a Series level, top 10s in Sunderland, Paris and Pontevedra could point the way to a big 2024 in store.
China’s Xinyu Lin took home Asian Games individual and mixed relay silver in October, following that success with 4th in the Chengdu and 5th in the Miyazaki World Cups. As she continues to forge one of the strongest runs at this level, the time could be nigh for what would be a popular first World Cup podium and another step towards the Paris 2024 start line.
Brown ready to star in home town
Hong Kong’s own Bailee Brown took bronze here back in November’s Asia Triathlon Cup and this will be only her sixth appearance at this level having debuted back in 2018 in Tongyeong. Silver in Putrajaya (behind Julie Derron) in February was the season opener she will have wanted, next will be giving her fans something to cheer on the bay on Sunday.
It is a start list stuffed with talent further down the numbers, too, with Britain’s 2018 World Champion Vicky Holland and teammates Sian Rainsley, Sophie Alden and Olivia Mathias all ready to make a charge for the medals. Holland made her comeback in 2023 after having her first child, Mathias hit her second World Cup podium at the season opener in Napier.
Elizabeth Bravo’s Continental Championships win in the Miami Heat was another reminder of her talents, Kazakhstan’s Asia Sprint Champion Ekaterina Shabalina, Denmark’s double World Cup winner Alberte Kjaer Pedersen, rising Spanish star Noelia Juan and Italy’s Ilaria Zane all know they have the experience to close out a race and the capacity for a big finish on Sunday morning.
World Triathlon Cup Hong Kong
24 March, 9.30am local time
Full start lists here
Watch on TriathlonLive.tv
