Luxembourg’s Jeanne Lehair stormed to an impressive victory at WTCS Yokohama in Japan as reigning Olympic and World Champion Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA) crashed out on the bike in the torrential rain.
It was Lehair who took all the plaudits with a brilliant and brave display throughout – she was in the front group of three on the swim, to the fore on the bike and then powered to the front out of T2 and never looked back.
And not only was it Lehair’s maiden WTCS win but also her first time on the podium.
The 2023 World Champion Beth Potter (GBR) got the better of a fantastic duel with Lisa Tertsch (GER), winner of the opening WTCS race in Abu Dhabi, to take second place.
And that pair were followed home by 2016 Olympic champion Gwen Jorgensen (USA) in fourth, 12 years on from her first victory in Yokohama.
Swim – Three go clear
It was Therese Feuersinger (AUT) who led out the two-lap swim in the rain, with choppy conditions thanks to some strong winds.
Exiting the water she had a narrow advantage over Tertsch and Lehair.
That trio had a 14 seconds lead on the rest, with Beaugrand and Potter – the last two world champions – towards the front of the chasers.
Bike – Beaugrand crashes out
The bike course should have been nine laps of 4.4km but the challenging conditions had seen a section taken out so we now had 10 loops of 3.7km.
The leading trio saw their advantage trimmed to eight seconds by the end of the first lap but the big news at this point was that Beaugrand had dropped off the back of the chase group.
However the first three groups all came together on lap three, which meant a huge pack of 32 athletes.
Beaugrand though was in 32nd pretty much throughout until the point when she lost control of her bike coming out of a corner on lap six and that proved to be race over for her.
The remaining 31 were able to negotiate the remaining laps without further alarm so it all came down to a run battle.
Run – No looking back for Lehair
And coming out of T2, Lehair made an instant statement as she powered to the head of affairs.
By the end of the first of four laps she had five seconds on the rest, with Annika Koch (GER) in second, Diana Isakova (AIN) in third, Tertsch in fourth and Potter fifth.
And Lehair never looked like relinquishing that momentum – her advantage was up to 10 seconds at halfway, though fractionally down to eight seconds at the bell, with Potter and Tertsch now locked together in second and third and well clear of the rest.
It did close slightly on the last lap but Lehair wasn’t going to be denied and she took an emotional win by four seconds from Potter, with Tertsch rounding out the podium and Jorgensen staying on strongly for fourth.
Results
WTCS Yokohama – Saturday May 16 2025
1500m / 37.23km / 10km
Elite Women
- 1. Jeanne Lehair (LUX) – 1:51:33 [19:23 / 57:15 / 33:40]
- 2. Beth Potter (GBR) – 1:51:37 [19:39 / 57:03 / 33:38]
- 3. Lisa Tertsch (GER) – 1:51:39 [19:24 / 57:21 / 33:46]
- 4. Gwen Jorgensen (USA) – 1:51:52 [19:47 / 56:54 / 33:47]
- 5. Annika Koch (GER) – 1:51:55 [19:44 / 56:56 / 34:00]
- 6. Diana Isakova (AIN) – 1:52:03 [19:43 / 56:54 / 34:05]
- 7. Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal (MEX) – 1:52:19 [19:34 / 57:06 / 34:25]
- 8. Tilda Månsson (SWE) – 1:52:24 [19:53 / 56:53 / 34:23]
- 9. Taylor Spivey (USA) – 1:52:27 [19:37 / 57:02 / 34:28]
- 10. Maria Tomé (POR) – 1:52:41 [19:46 / 56:56 / 34:42]
WTCS 2025 rankings after Yokohama (race two)
- 1. Lisa Tertsch (GER) – 1605.63
- 2. Jeanne Lehair (LUX) – 1469.80
- 3. Rosa Maria Tapia Vidal (MEX) – 1175.47
- 4. Diana Isakova (AIN) – 1079.16
- 5. Annika Koch (GER) – 983.88
- 6. Tanja Neubert (GER) – 966.47
- 7. Beth Potter (GBR) – 925.00
- 8. Tilda Månsson (SWE) – 897.56
- 9. Gwen Jorgensen (USA) – 875.98
- 10. Taylor Spivey (USA) – 830.24
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