World Triathlon Cup Napier Results: A win for Linn as British stars impress with podium finishes

Australian rising star Sophie Linn claimed the first World Triathlon Cup win of her career in Napier this weekend, as the Olympic hopeful kicked off the season in emphatic fashion Down Under.

The Commonwealth Games medalist, who won the Arena Games Triathlon Series last year, had never finished higher than fifth at a World Triathlon Cup before today but produced a phenomenal performance to take the tape in New Zealand.

Beating British stars Sophie Alden and Olivia Mathias to the top step of the podium, the 29-year-old has been going from strength-to-strength over the past few seasons and could be a serious contender for the Australian team in Paris.

British stars set the pace

Following a training camp with British Triathlon in Australia prior to the race, both Alden and Mathias appeared keen to demonstrate their fitness early on as the pair led out of the water on the North Island.

Olivia Mathias Emma Lombardi bike WTCS Sunderland 2023 [Photo credit: Tommy Zaferes / World Triathlon] — [Photo credit: Tommy Zaferes / World Triathlon]

With the first ten women out of the water within fifteen seconds of each other, all the pre-race contenders were together coming into transition, with Linn +0:12 off the front in T1.

On the bike, the leaders remained relatively unchanged, with other big names such as Hungarian Zsanett Kuttor-Bragmayer and Australian Emma Jeffcoat still in contention by the time the front group finished the 20km bike course.

Linn strongest across the board

Out of T2, Linn made her way to the front and despite not recording the fastest split in any discipline, showed the merits of a consistent performance across the board, as she held off both Alden and Mathias to win by ten seconds.

Sophie Linn wins her first ever World Triathlon Cup in Napier. — [Photo Credit – World Triathlon]

Behind, the Brits put on a show for the crowd in Napier, as a thrilling sprint finish went down to the wire, with Alden just pipping Mathias to the silver medal by less than a second as the pair wrapped up the podium.

In fourth and fifth, Melanie Santos of Portugal and Kuttor-Bragmayer were able to hold off two fast finishers, Ilaria Zane of Italy and American Gina Sereno, as the first race of the 2024 World Triathlon Cup circuit lived up to expectations.