World Triathlon Cup Miyazaki Results: Gwen Jorgensen and Lehair beaten by superb Seregni

Bianca Seregni pipped Gwen Jorgensen and Jeanne Lehair to glory at World Triathlon Cup Miyazaki on Saturday as the Italian made it a hat-trick of victories in Asia in 2023.

Italian star Seregni grabbed her third World Triathlon Cup victory of an excellent season after being at the front of the race throughout, and was more than good enough to hold off the 2016 Rio gold medallist and the Luxembourg star on the run.

Swim – Takahashi leads the way

There was big news before the gun sounded with Britain’s newly-crowned Super League Triathlon Series champion Kate Waugh – due to wear the #1 bid – unable to start the race.

Seregni, a winner already at Chengdu and Weihai in 2023, was right at the front of the action in typical styel, as Japan’s Yuko Takahashi led the field out of the water after the swim. She was right behind the Japanese star with team-mate Alice Betto and Hungary’s Marta Kropko completing a lead group of four. Lehair and Jorgensen were 14 and 20 seconds back respectively at this early stage.

Bike – big guns all in contention

The bike leg saw Lehair and Jorgensen bridge up to contention in a front pack which numbered 15 by the time they moved into the latter stages of the eight laps. Seregni and Betto were also right there for Italy while China’s Xinyu Lin was also producing a terrific leg to put herself in the mix. The chase pack was around a minute back.

That group of 15 was still intact as the field went into T2 with Takahashi and Lehair leading. Jorgensen meanwhile would lose significant time in T2, coming out 11 seconds behind the Japanese leader. The chase pack still had around 47 seconds to make up despite cutting a chunk off that deficit in the latter stages of the bike.

Run – Seregni storms to impressive win

The Italian pair of Seregni and Betto made their move very early on the run. Pretty soon Betto would also be dropped too, but she and Lehair did manage to hang in with the gap still only around four seconds after the end of Lap 1. Jorgensen meanwhile was 16 seconds away in fourth and with plenty of work to do.

The second lap saw Lehair and Betto gradually whittle down the deficit to Seregni, and as they moved through transition to start Lap 3 the Luxembourg star took over at the front from the Italians. The gap to Jorgensen had now grown to 19 seconds with Lin 33 seconds away in fifth. It was all to play for with 5k to go.

The early portion of Lap 3 saw Lehair still trying to break free and while Betto struggled to go the pace, Seregni did not. Bianca reclaimed the advantage and poured on the pace with Lehair now the one trying not to lose touch. Seregni built a 10-second lead over Lehair as they took the bell while Betto was 14 seconds back in third and Jorgensen – working incredibly hard to make inroads – 22 seconds away in fourth.

The race was now very much Seregni’s to lose, but that was not going to happen as she targeted yet another World Triathlon Cup victory in Asia in 2023. She pulled further clear of Lehair and Betto as the tape approached, while the long stride of Jorgensen became very much a player for a podium spot.

Seregni would eventually come home 18 seconds to the good, while Jorgensen produced a blistering final 2.5k to pass Lehair for second, with Betto just missing out on a podium spot. Lin claimed a top-five finish for China.