Triathletes take plunge but home favourite crashes out in cycling
FROM the packed grandstands to the smiling faces lining the route, the dramatic twist in the elite men’s race to the exhausted amateurs who stumbled over the finish line – Leeds played host to another uplifting world triathlon festival over the weekend.
The AJ Bell 2022 World Championship Triathlon Series, to give the event its official name, again combined the endeavours of Olympians with the efforts of recreational entrants.
It is quite an unusual event in sport and Leeds has become synonymous with it, athletes of all ages competing in open races in the morning before collecting their kit and watching the world’s best contest the same course in the afternoon.
This was the sixth time Leeds has staged a World Championship Series weekend, a sequence that began in 2016
and was punctuated only by its cancellation due to the Covid pandemic in 2020.
The all-conquering Brownlee brothers are the reason it came here in the first place, their exploits on the global stage
making Leeds a magnet for the best triathletes in this country.
While Alistair, a former winner of the race, has retired from the shorter distances to focus on other pursuits, his brother Jonny was still stealing the headlines this weekend. But not in the glory as he would have liked. This time, the younger Brownlee was on the ground in pain, a crash on the bike leg of the race ending his chances.
There were victories in the elite races for France’s Cassandre Beaugrand and New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde, while the German relay team pipped Great Britain into second place in the mixed relay yesterday.
But this weekend is about so much more than the world’s best. It is about the everyday triathletes who flock to the city from far and wide to stand on an even footing as their heroes for just a few seconds.
The festival leaves Leeds next year but only temporarily. Sunderland will host the 2023 event, with the World Championship Series returning to Leeds in 2024.