TRIATHLON – BAHRAIN Victorious 13’s superstar triathletes put in sensational performances over the weekend in international events held around the world.
Olympic and world champion Cassandre Beaugrand claimed a fourth consecutive World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) victory in Weihai, China and Jelle Geens made an impressive return from injury by finishing as runner-up at Ironman 70.3 Zell am See-Kaprun in Austria.
Vasco Vilaca, meanwhile, retained his WTCS lead ahead of the grand final, scheduled for later this month.
Beaugrand continued her outstanding run of form and strengthened her position ahead of the WTCS curtain-closer in Pontevedra, Spain.
Racing in Weihai for the first time since 2017, when she finished fifth at the World Cup, the French icon emerged from the 1.5-kilometre swim tied for second before settling into the lead group on the 40km bike.
Beaugrand helped drive the pace into the bike-to-run transition, emerging alongside Beth Potter from Britain and Lisa Tertsch from Germany at the front of the race. The trio quickly separated from the rest of the field over the opening part of the 10km run, with Beaugrand staying composed behind Potter through the first laps.
Her decisive move came after the final turnaround with a little over one km remaining. Beaugrand accelerated to first and dropped Tertsch before pulling clear of Potter and striding to victory in one hour 49 minutes and 20 seconds, including a 32-minute 12-second run split, which was the best for the race.
“Yeah, this one was definitely not easy,” said Beaugrand, who completed her swim in 19:14 and the bike leg in 56:14.
“I was feeling great on the swim, great on the bike – I was a bit scared because the last time I raced in the rain was Yokohama (2025, when she crashed). The run was quite hard with Beth (Potter) pushing the pace.”
Potter claimed second place in 1:49:26, while Tertsch took third in 1:49:44.
Following Weihai, Beaugrand continued to top the WTCS elite women’s world rankings with 4,000 points.
Vilaca also is in first place amongst the elite men with 3,850 points. Despite not being in action this past weekend, he retained the series lead heading into the final stages of the season.
With Pontevedra still to come, Vilaca remains firmly in contention for the world title after an impressive and consistent season on the WTCS circuit.
Meanwhile, Bahrain Victorious 13’s Geens made a brilliant return to racing after injury to claim second place in Zell am See.
The Belgian completed the event in 3:45:59. He finished the 1.9km swim in 23:26 and the 89.3km bike in 2:05:30, before concluding his podium bid with a time of 1:13:27 in the 21.1km run.
Lasse Nygaard Priester of Germany won in 3:43:29, while Tjebbe Kaindl of Austria was third in 3:48:22.
The performance was an encouraging return for the reigning Ironman 70.3 world champion and an important step in his preparations to defend his world title in Nice, France, on September 12.
Geens will be joined on the start line in Nice by Bahrain Victorious 13 teammate Marten Van Riel, who heads into the championship in strong form and will also be a serious contender for the world crown.
With Beaugrand continuing her winning streak, Vilaca retaining the WTCS series lead, and Geens returning to the podium ahead of his world title defence, Bahrain Victorious 13 heads into a major September of racing in outstanding form.
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