The big two Olympic favourites of Team GB’s Beth Potter and home hope Cassandre Beaugrand will start right alongside each other in the women’s individual race in Paris following the pontoon draw.
Positions on the floating Alexandre III pontoon are obviously dependent on the water quality being deemed good enough to stage the race – something we won’t know until a few hours before the scheduled start at 8am local time on Wednesday.
But Potter (27) and Beaugrand (26) are bang in the middle of the 55-strong field after the athletes – in Olympics qualification ranking order – picked their preferred spots.
As #1 after a 2023 campaign which saw her become World Champion and win the Paris Test Event, Potter went first, followed by the in-form Beaugrand who has beaten her at both WTCS Hamburg and WTCS Cagliari recently.
The first 10 picks were kept hidden until all were done but were later revealed to be positions 20-29.
Why the draw really matters in Paris
The draw for position on the floating Alexandre III pontoon is arguably more important than ever at the Paris Olympics because of the strong currents.
The fact that both swim familiarisation sessions were cancelled means that the only experience the athletes have comes from the Paris Test Event last year, meaning learnings are limited. And the likes of reigning champion Flora Duffy (BER) and Georgia Taylor-Brown (GBR), who took silver in Tokyo, missed that race through injury so have even less info to go on.
But the strength of the currents, particularly around the buoys, took many athletes by surprise last August and helped split up the women’s race.
The River Seine is France’s second longest river and, as our in-depth course guide explains, currents tend to be strongest in the centre of the river.
The 1.5km swim actually involves two laps – the first is 910m and the second 590m, both are anti-clockwise.
It means that it’s a relatively long swim of 440m to the first buoy, then 30m to the next one before the turn back to the pontoon.
Crucially the current is in the athletes’ favour on the way out so it’s all about combining the most direct route to the first buoy while also trying to benefit from the downstream effect.
How the draw worked out
Similar to the men’s draw, the preferred berths focussed on the middle-right region, aiming for the straightest line and strongest current, and taking the bridge arches into account.
Defending champion Duffy selected number 16 while Beaugrand’s French team-mates Emma Lombardi and Leonie Periault chose 28 and 33 respectively.
Other names likely to be leading the way in the water include Maya Kingma (NED) in spot 35 and Kate Waugh (GBR) in position 19.
Italy’s Bianca Seregni took the number one spot on the far right of the pontoon with Zsanett Kuttor-Bragmayer in two and on the opposite side to the start position that the Hungarian powerhouse struggled from in the Test Event.
Keeping it simple
“I just chose, for me, the straightest line and just went where Alex (Yee) went, kept it simple,” explained Potter afterwards.
Seregni had less choice by the time it got to her (she’s ranked #20) and said: “It’s strange… I want to make the difference and to be free, and I didn’t have a big number to choose from for the best ones so I will do my job.”
But will the water quality be deemed good enough for the swim?
We’ll find out around four hours before the scheduled start and if the answer is ‘no’ then the race will be rescheduled for Friday.
