France’s Cassandre Beaugrand has been the embodiment of calm all year, scooping a glittering Olympic title to add to her WTCS Cagliari and WTCS Hamburg golds that collectively see her heading into Saturday’s Championship Finals on top of the Series rankings.
At least, that is how she has looked. How she handled the pressures of a home Games was certainly impressive, but now it is time to reload as the 27-year-old looks to become France’s first female World Champion.
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It’s all a far cry from coming so close to the title in Pontevedra 12 months ago, when Beth Potter halted her charge. The Brit, Lisa Tertsch and Emma Lombardi are the best placed to do so again and will be primed and ready to seize their moment.
A beach start ahead of the 1.5km swim - likely wetsuits - then a mostly flat 8-lap and 40km bike and a very flat and fast 10km run, much like the Cagliari course she conquered back in May. Can Beaugrand do the double and win the world title just months after Olympic triumph? Tune in to TriathlonLive.tv from 15:30 on Saturday 19 October to find out.
Gold or silver secures Beaugrand the title
The maths can’t get too much clearer than a top-two finish meaning the world title for Cassandre Beaugrand. But while form suggests that will be straightforward, the post-Games reality is far from it. Having only done shorter racing since Paris, this will be an altogether greater test of her skills in arguably the second-biggest race of her career.
Whether Beaugrand is able to follow the great Flora Duffy into the history books and become France’s first female World Champion the same year as an Olympic gold, we will know on Saturday afternoon.
A big player in that will be Beth Potter, who hits her fifth Championship Finals and has been open about struggling to find her peak form so far in 2024. Given that that still meant multiple Series medals and an Olympic bronze, then she certainly can’t be far off her title-winning best of last year.
Successfully closing out a Finals is also something she has over Beaugrand. The Brit knows that gold, and putting at least one person between her and her rival, would mean back-to-back world titles, but she will want to pile on the pressure over the opening stages of the run.
Tertsch on a tear, Lombardi poised
Lisa Tertsch hits her third Championship Finals start fresh from a first WTCS gold in Weihai and looking every bit the title challenger. The German won Mixed Relay Olympic gold in Paris and the self-belief looks to be flowing. Like Potter, if she can win and someone finishes between herself and Beaugrand, she becomes Germany’s first female World Champion and first Series podium since Anne Haug in 2012.Emma Lombardi continues to be the definition of consistency, but Series gold still eludes the 23-year-old. She has, of course, shared a Series podium twice in Cagliari, those silvers on a flat coastal course suggesting that Torremolinos could also be a good fit for the French star.
The winner in Italy on both of those occasions was Georgia Taylor-Brown. Runner-up to Flora Duffy in 2022, injured through much of 2023, the Brit will relish another Championship Finals fling, stamping her influence on the title race and a possible fifth Series podium of her own.
Nobody has won more Finals medals than USA’s Gwen Jorgensen, and she touches down in Spain hungry for another standout showing to head into the off season. Two golds and two silvers, the last in 2016, it was that 6th place on a tough WTCS Weihai course at the end of September that hints at more fireworks to come.
Add the collective talents of past Series medallists like Kate Waugh, Leonie Periault, Kirsten Kasper and Rachel Klamer, plus young guns Selina Klamt and Tilda Mansson, and the Torremolinos showdown looks like being one for the ages.
WOMENS 2024 CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS 19 OCTOBER 15:35 START LIST WATCH LIVE
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