supertri Boston women's results: Lehair puts Olympics woes behind her to take the win

Jeanne Lehair, second in last year’s supertri but frustrated at the Paris Olympics after a crash on the bike, powered to a brilliant victory in the opening supertri race of 2024 as she won in Boston.

All races now are the Enduro format – the same one Luxembourg athlete Lehair won in London last year – which sees three lots of swim / bike / run.

Lehair, leading the Podium Racing team, was the only one of a front group of four to have a ‘short chute’ in the ninth and final stage but in truth she would probably have won without it.

Georgia Taylor-Brown was second, with her Crown Racing teammate Kate Waugh, the reigning champion, third.

Stage 1 – Brownlee Racing to the fore

Three series of swim / bike / run got underway in overcast conditions at 1243 local time but the rain that had been falling all morning had stopped.

And the first of nine legs saw a good start from Brownlee Racing but it was Vittória Lopes who was by far the strongest and earned the first short chute for Podium Racing.

Lehair was six seconds back, closely followed by Waugh and then Taylor-Brown was at +11, Beth Potter at +12 and Olympic champion Cassandre Beaugrand was +15.

The swim again showcased more shrewd tactics from Podium Racing manager Tim Don, who has led his teams to two Super League titles in last three years, as his athletes went on the outside, benefitted from the current and were nicely placed.

It came relatively back together on bike and there were four Brits up front – GTB, Waugh (both Crown Racing), then Olivia Mathias and Jess Fullagar (both Brownlee Racing), followed by Lehair.

Brownlee Racing got the short chute after the bike via Fullagar who negotiated the T2 congestion best of all.

On the run Beaugrand tried to bridge gap to that group of five but it didn’t happen as GTB ran away from the field to prevent the third short chute going elsewhere.

Stage 2 – Zaferes exits the race

The swim saw the gaps narrowed but early on the bike we still had our front group of five – Taylor-Brown, Waugh, Mathias, Fullagar and Lehair.

Lehair was the one who was slightly struggling to stay in touch – though she was boosted by the fact that she was handed her team’s short chute.

It was a trickier decision for Crown Racing’s Chris McCormack but he made the call to go with Beaugrand rather than Waugh and GTB at the front of the race.

Going through transition after the bike it was Waugh who was first out and last year’s overall Super League champion was starting to gap the rest.

Meanwhile Katie Zafares was struggling – her manager Parker Spencer revealed she’d been sick in the build up – and she would be eliminated just before the run after falling 90 seconds behind.

Indeed her whole Stars & Stripes team were barely making an impression at the front of the race, bar Taylor Spivey who was moving up.

Stage 3 – Lehair sees off Crown duo

Starting the final swim of the day it was Waugh, Lehair and Taylor-Brown – all Super League / supertri winners – who had gapped the rest.

But they were joined by Spivey who gained 11 seconds on them to join the party up front and that now-quartet looked to have the race win between them.

Was there understandable Olympic fatigue from gold and bronze medal winners Beaugrand and Potter? They were off the pace and Potter would be in danger of being eliminated on the 90-second rule.

The front four were well ahead of the rest (20+ seconds, which is huge in supertri) but it was only Lehair who had a short chute to come and they all started the run relatively together.

Spivey was quickest through transition and got out first, chased by Taylor-Brown and Waugh. There was a slight gap to Lehair but the short chute did the trick and she was back in touch before putting the burners on and moving to the front.

Four soon became three – Lehair in front, Taylor-Brown second, Waugh third and Spivey losing touch in fourth.

And Lehair proved strongest by some margin, kicking clear and never looking back. She had time for high fives on the finish straight as Taylor-Brown and Waugh chased her home.