Hamburg hosts World Series and Mixed Relay World Champs this coming weekend
Hamburg, Germany will host it’s annual weekend double on Saturday and Sunday, with (Sprint distance) individual ITU World Triathlon Series racing on Saturday, followed by the fast, fun and dramatic dives of the Mixed Relay Triathlon World Championship on Sunday.
Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA) and Mario Mola (ESP) won last year… (and Mario won in 2017 and 2016 too), and both will be racing once again.
Katie Zaferes has been the athlete of 2019 however, only beaten once (by Great Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown), while the men’s series has been something of a roulette game so far; five different winners and a series leader, Fernando Alarza (ESP), who has been consistently in the top-10, but has just one podium to his name in 2019. That said, with 15 podium results shared amongst 13 athletes so far, it’s no surprise that the current WTS rankings are exceptionally close at the top.
With five races plus the Grand Final to count, that looks set to get even closer as athletes who have missed a race or two so far, start to add meet their minimum criteria. Alex Yee, for example, is currently eighth but his points come from just three race starts.
HOW TO WATCH IT ALL LIVE
The Elite race starts times are:
- Saturday 6th July – Elite Women start – 14:00 (local time) / 13:00 (UK time)
- Saturday 6th July – Elite Men start – 16:30 (local time) / 15:30 (UK time)
- Sunday 7th July – Mixed Relay start – 09:30 (local time) / 08:30 (UK time)
You can watch Saturday’s race via the BBC (Connected TV and online), coverage schedule currently to start at 12:40 and 15:10 for the women’s and men’s races on Saturday (UK-time), respectively. The BBC Red Button / online coverage will start around 08:10 on Sunday morning.
Alternatively, you can also watch live through the excellent (subscription) TriathlonLIVE (www.TriathlonLIVE.tv) service. More on that HERE. If you are triathlon fan, the small annual fee really is more than worth it, based on several events I’ve followed live myself this year.
CLICK HERE FOR FULL START LIST
Here is the event preview, courtesy of British Triathlon.
British Triathletes ready for Hamburg test
A seven-strong British squad has been announced to compete at the ITU World Triathlon Series and ITU Triathlon Mixed Relay World Championships in Hamburg from 6 – 7 July.
The elite women come into the event off the back of two individual medals in Montreal (silver and bronze) and Leeds (gold and bronze), having also put in a dominant performance to take gold in the Accenture World Triathlon Mixed Relay Nottingham.
Georgia Taylor-Brown, who has secured medals at the last three legs of the World Series, will be looking to further her experience in the sport as she takes on some of the world’s best triathletes.
The Leeds-based athlete will be joined on the start line by World Champion Vicky Holland, Olympian Non Stanford and World Cup Series gold medallist Sophie Coldwell.
The Brits will be up against tough competition in the form of World Series leader Katie Zaferes (USA) and Taylor Spivey (USA).
The men’s elite race sees the return to action of Alex Yee after winning gold in the Mixed Team Relay event in Nottingham. The Leeds athlete is ranked in eighth place overall after a number of strong performances throughout the Series.
Jonathan Brownlee will be back on the start line for the first time since the Leeds leg and will be alongside Tom Bishop who is ranked in 19th place overall in the Series.
The Mixed Relay World Championship, which takes place on 7 July, will see the Brits come up against the best teams in the world.
Having finished fourth at the event last year, the British team will be looking to further their experience this time around as they continue to develop in the newest Olympic format.
Mike Cavendish, British Triathlon National Performance Director, said: “Hamburg will offer a good test for our athletes in terms of the course and the quality of the field we are going to face.
“I’m pleased that we have a lot of our top athletes on the start line and they will use the race to gain more experience ahead of the Olympic test event and Grand Final.
“The Mixed Relay World Championships will be an exciting event. We know that we will face some tough competition, but we’re using the event as an opportunity to continue to try out different combinations.”
| Name | Based |
| Sophie Coldwell | Loughborough |
| Vicky Holland | Bath |
| Non Stanford | Wales |
| Georgia Taylor-Brown | Leeds |
| Tom Bishop | Leeds |
| Jonathan Brownlee | Leeds |
| Alex Yee | Leeds |