Beth Potter and Chase McQueen win supertri E World Championship

The action was fast and furious in London today as USA’s Chase McQueen and Britain’s Beth Potter took the supertri E World Championship titles.

A series of heats took place throughout the day to whittle the field down to 10 finalists for both the women’s and men’s races, with Britain’s Vicky Holland the biggest name to miss out on making the finals.

While the start lists weren’t the deepest, there was still plenty of top talent on show, making for a couple of tight contests at the London Aquatics Centre as the athletes tackled three stages made up of a 200m pool swim, 4km bike on smart trainers and 1km treadmill run.

What happened in the men’s race?

Stage 1

McQueen led out the swim but was closely tracked by Max Stapley (GBR), coming out of the water together and hopping onto their smart trainers. Sam Dickinson (GBR) and Henry Graf (DEU) were in close company coming out of the pool, but only 10secs covered the 10 starting athletes.

McQueen was quickly out in front on the bike, with a break of 5secs back to Dickinson, who had moved up into second, while Stapley was in close company.

Fellow Brits Harry Leleu and Hugo Milner were around 18secs back toward the end of the bike leg.

McQueen was off the bike 3secs ahead of Dickinson, with Stapley 8secs down, but over the course of the 1km run leg that gap gradually reduced with just 3secs covering the trio by the end.

Stage 2

The next stage, which begun just 5mins later, saw the order of sports reversed, with the athletes tackling run, then bike and finally swim.

Milner showed his run ability by heading up the field with Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger (FRA) and Stapley close behind.

McQueen and Dickinson weren’t far behind and passed Milner early into the bike, with the latter gradually falling down the field to ninth, just ahead of fellow Brit Leleu, who was some 29secs down at the rear, with Estaban Basanta Fouz (ESP) in ninth.

Hueber-Moosbrugger and McQueen came off the bike with 1sec between them, followed closely by Stapley and Dickinson.

The American flew into the pool and finished the leg with a 7sec lead. Second was Graf, who made up places in the water, followed by Hueber-Moosbrugger, Dickinson and then Stapley, the latter two being 9secs down.

Milner, meanwhile, finished some 33secs down.

Stage 3

The final stage was a pursuit format, with the quickest athlete over the two stages starting first and the order of the rest dictated by their combined times from the two stages.

McQueen started with a 12sec lead, with Stapley second and Dickinson an extra second down on him. Hueber-Moosbrugger followed 3secs later, with Graf 1sec behind.

McQueen came out of the pool with an 11sec lead over Stapley, with Dickinson a further 4secs down ahead of Graf.

Milner lost his goggles and swim cap in the water, but still came out of the water in eighth.

That’s the order it stayed in on the bike as McQueen stretched his lead to 19secs by the time they transitioned to the run.

Stapley hopped onto the treadmill a couple of seconds ahead of Dickinson, but the latter started to struggle to keep pace and was overtaken by Hueber-Moosbrugger who was the fastest athlete on the course at the time.

Stapley was also kicking on well and the gap to McQueen gradually dropped down to around 9secs before the American crossed the line for his first world title.

Men’s final results

1. Chase McQueen (USA); 11:30
2. Max Stapley (GBR); 11:39
3. Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger (FRA); 11:44
4. Samuel Dickinson (GBR); 11:52
5. Henry Graf (DEU); 11:53
6. Simon Henseleit (DEU); 12:08
7. James Edgar (IRL); 12:17
8. Hugo Milner (GBR); 12:37
9. Esteban Basanta Fouz (ESP); 12:55
10. Harry Leleu (GBR); 13:14

What happened in the women’s race?

Stage 1

Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA) quickly built a gap right from the off on the swim and took that lead into the bike, with Potter and Katie Zaferes (USA) laying chase.

Potter soon bridged up to the Frenchwoman, spending a lot of time out of the saddle putting the power down.

The two came off the bike almost neck and neck and that’s how it stayed on the run with hardly anything between them.

But Potter soon made her move to take the lead, with the gap to the best of the rest growing and growing.

The reigning world champion won the stage 5secs ahead of Beaugrand, with Zaferes, Lena Meissner (DEU) and co some way back.

Stage 2

The next stage once again unfolded in reverse order and Beaugrand and Potter were quickly out in front on the run, with Zaferes also staying in touch.

But as soon as they’d transitioned to the bike Potter was out of the saddle to get going and got to work trying to pull out a bit of a gap.

There wasn’t much between the top three, with Beaugrand 2secs back and Zaferes 5secs back, but the gap was bigger back to Meissner, who was the best of the rest at 17secs back.

That number continued to grow to the chasing pack and the two front runners eventually got off the bike with nothing between them.

Potter was first into the water but quickly caught by top swimmer Beaugrand, yet the latter didn’t pull away as expected.

Impressively, Potter was actually first to touch the wall after the 200m swim, with Beaugrand following almost instantly.

Zaferes finished the stage third, some 30secs back, and it looked very much like those three athletes would be the ones on the podium following the final leg.

The best of the rest were over a minute back, with Germany’s Tanja Neubert and Meissner following up in fourth and fifth.

Stage 3

Normal service resumed in stage three as Potter and Beaugrand swam side by side and left the rest of the field in their wake.

They got onto the bikes at the same time, though the Brit was slow to get going, giving away a vital couple of seconds.

The duo stayed within 2secs of each other throughout the bike, however, and remained in a league of their own as Zaferes followed behind some 36secs down.

Potter was off the bike just behind Beaugrand, but got onto the treadmill first and edged into the lead.

A third of the way into the run the pain was starting to show for both athletes, but it was Potter who managed to keep the pace up, as Beaugrand started to drop off.

The win suddenly looked as if it was in no doubt as that lead grew, with Potter crossing the line 27secs clear and taking her second world title in six months.

Shortly after the finish, Beaugrand was shown sat on the floor clutching her calf, suggesting cramp or some form of injury could have played a role in her drop-off.

Zaferes duly took third, followed by Neubert and Meissner.

Women’s final results

1. Beth Potter (GBR); 12:07
2. Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA); 12:25
3. Katie Zaferes (USA); 13:09
4. Tanja Neubert (DEU); 13.42
5. Lena Meissner (DEU); 13:57
6. Petra Kurikova (CZE); 14:07
7. Julia Broecker (DEU); 14:08
8. Annabel Morton (GBR); 14:37
9. Marlene Gomez-Goeggel (DEU); 14:48
10. Barbara De Koning (NED); 15:11