Germany’s Sophia Saller wins world U23 women’s title

The triathlon stronghold of Germany is renowned for its production line of men racing long course, but now has some world-class prospects on the female draft-legal side too.

After Laura Lindemann took the honours in the junior women’s race on Friday, it was Sophia Saller’s turn to go one better than her European silver earlier in the season and pick up U23 gold in the Edmonton Grand Final.

“I don’t know what to say,” she said after finishing 33 seconds clear of Austrialia’s Gillian Backhouse in 2:04:52. “I didn’t feel too good on the swim, got out of the water just behind the lead pack and I just gunned it going up the hill and caught them at the tunnel. Then I just got to stay in there and run for my life.”

American Erin Jones made up the podium with a strong 10km run split of 36:56 after being nearly a minute and a half down off the bike and inspired by Gwen Jorgensen the day before. “It was amazing, I felt great. Our team did awesome yesterday,” she said. “It was a huge motivation to go hard today. Watching Gwen run like she did yesterday gave me motivation that I could run from the chase pack and I did.”

There was no British interest and the best-placed of the home finishers was Amelie Kretz in sixth.

Image: Janos Schmidt/triathlon.org

Liz Barrett 220 Deputy Editor

About

220 deputy editor Liz Barrett started work on the magazine in 2007 as staff writer. Since then, she’s reported live from almost every major triathlon across the globe, including the Ironman World Championships, 70.3 Worlds, six ITU Worlds, Challenge Roth, the 2014 and 2022 Commonwealths, the London and Paris Olympics and the Rio Paralympics, to name but a few. Name a pro and chances are she’ll have interviewed them, so, unsurprisingly, she’s our go-to pro-athlete expert on the team. When not covering races, you’ll find her whipping words into finely-crafted shape for both the magazine and website.