There were some strong words from 2016 Olympic gold medallist Gwen Jorgensen after she booked her place in Saturday’s finals of the Super Sprint World Championships at WTCS Hamburg.
The American has been on the comeback trail after seven years out of the sport and she grabbed her second chance to qualify in some style by making the top five in her repechage heat.
But she needed her trademark run speed to cut through the field and make up a 20-seconds deficit in not much more than 1.5km.
Jorgensen speaks out on swim
And speaking to World Triathlon straight afterwards she described the swim as “chaos”, explaining: “The ranking I have – just being far left – it’s just really hard to get out in that swim.
“It’s an interesting course when you go through that tunnel and there’s nobody’s watching so there’s just chaos – people are pulling you under and not being fair in my opinion.
“I don’t think it’s an honest swim and it makes it really hard.”
But Jorgensen battled back superbly and from that point onwards she was happy with how her race panned out.
She added: “I felt like I biked a lot better, tactically and technically. We had some people working in my group so I think we kept it pretty close, close enough to get through.”
She flew out of T2 and onto the run, quickly bridging up to the lead group but admits she’s learning all the time about the Super Sprint format which this weekend features a 300m swim, a 7.5km bike and a 1.6km run.
“I didn’t know that I could reel them in [on the run] but I need to make some improvements going forward. I know I’m seasoned but I’ve never done this race format and have been out of the sport for seven years and every time I race I learn something new.”
On the right track
When announcing her return to the sport, Jorgensen said one big aim is making the Mixed Relay team for Paris 2024.
And she clearly feels strong progress is being made, adding: “It’s going to take a while for me to get back to where I was but I think I’m so close to being there.”
But the strength in depth of the USA has also been underlined with their full contingent of women through to finals day on Saturday, with Jorgensen joined by Taylor Spivey, Kirsten Kasper, Katie Zaferes and Summer Rappaport.
The final will see 30 women line up, with 10 eliminated in each of the first two stages before we get down to the final shootout and it will be fascinating to see how Jorgensen fares.
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