The World Triathlon Championship Series is reaching its final few weeks and this weekend’s event in Bermuda is the final chance for athletes to gain points ahead of the Championship Finals in Abu Dhabi from 24-26 November.
Sophie Coldwell, Beth Potter, Grant Sheldon and Alex Yee will all be racing in the penultimate race of the World Triathlon Championship Series as elite racing returns to the island for the first time since 2019.
Yee heads to Bermuda – his first-time racing on the island – off the back of victory at the last race in Cagliari to take his record to three golds from his three WTCS finishes this season.
The Olympic gold and silver medallist is currently fourth in the men’s Maurice Lacroix World Triathlon Championship Rankings, but a podium place in Bermuda would be enough for Yee to head into the Grand Final top of the standings. It would then be a straight shootout between Yee and Commonwealth silver medallist Hayden Wilde (NZL) for the world title in Abu Dhabi.
Sheldon will join Yee on the Bermuda start line as he continues a season which has included a number of top-10 finishes. This will be his third WTCS start of 2022 having also raced in Yokohama and Leeds where he was part of the silver-medal winning mixed relay team.
A top-five finish at the Commonwealth Games, a top-15 placing at the Europe Triathlon Championships and fifth place at World Triathlon Cup Karlovy Vary have followed with Bermuda next on his schedule.
Sophie Coldwell and Beth Potter will be the British representatives in the women’s race, and they will be aiming to continue their consistent seasons which have seen the two Brits in the battle for the overall podium spots.
Potter, the Commonwealth bronze medallist, is currently ranked fourth with her top four results from 2022 including her first two WTCS medals in Hamburg and Montreal. Coldwell also has two podiums during the series. The Commonwealth Games mixed relay champion claimed bronzes at AJ Bell 2022 World Triathlon Championship Series Leeds and last year’s race in Abu Dhabi with both counting towards her seventh-place total overall.
It’s the standard distance in Bermuda with a 1500m Atlantic Ocean swim, consisting of two laps the first of 700m and the second 800m towards transition.
The undulating 40km bike route includes the steep climb up Flora Duffy Hill which will be tackled eight times during the multi-lap bike course. Then it’s onto the four-lap 10km run to the finish.
The men’s start list includes the return of Olympic champion Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) who will race at a WTCS event for the first time since August 2021 a week after becoming IRONMAN 70.3 world champion.
His compatriot Gustav Iden, who won the IRONMAN World Championships in Kona last month, will also be racing having also raced in Leeds. Current third-place athlete overall Jelle Geens (BEL) is the top-ranked athlete and will wear the number one.
In the women’s race, Olympic champion Dame Flora Duffy will race at her home event and is currently second in the series rankings with only Taylor-Brown securing more points than the defending champion so far this series.
Other international athletes to watch include Taylor Knibb (USA), who heads to Bermuda having won the IRONMAN 70.3 world title last week, along with her compatriot Taylor Spivey, who was a consistent performer during the recent Super League Triathlon Championship Series, finishing second overall.
European silver medallist Laura Lindemann and fellow German athlete Anabel Knoll are also ranked highly in the overall standings.
The men’s race will be the first to start on Sunday (6 November) at 3pm (GMT) followed by the women’s race at 6pm (GMT).
Live coverage will be available to watch on BBC iPlayer and the BBC Sport website, as well as triathlonlive.tv.
(Icon image: World Triathlon / Tommy Zaferes)
(Header image: World Triathlon / Ben Lumley)
