Who will win the 2024 WTCS world titles?

It’s hard to believe given the success of the Brownlee brothers and Alex Yee on the Olympic stage that Great Britain has not won a men’s World Triathlon world title for 12 years.

Although there have been plenty of near misses along the way, not since Jonny Brownlee in Auckland in 2012 has a GB male topped the overall World Triathlon Championship Series.

But this Sunday in Torremolinos, Yee not only has the chance to avenge his scuppered attempts in 2022 and 2023, but could achieve what neither Alistair nor Jonny managed in their short course careers and win Olympic gold and the world title in the same year.

After a reduced race calendar where events in Abu Dhabi (adverse weather) and Montreal (lack of funding) were cancelled, Yee heads to the south of Spain as the No 1 ranked male with three wins from three starts, knowing a sixth place finish will guarantee him the series.

Those victories in Cagliari, Weihei and the Paris Olympics Games give him a maximum 3,000pts, placing him 428pts ahead of second-place Leo Bergere, with New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde a further 96pts behind the Frenchman.

With an increased 1,250pts on offer to the winner of the season finale, the series is not over yet and nobody will understand this better than Yee.

In 2022, he missed out to Bergere by just 20pts as he finished fourth in the final race in Abu Dhabi and Bergere took his first ever win at that level, and with it the world crown.

Then last year in Pontevedra, Yee was again perfectly positioned to gain the elusive title but had one of his worst races as a professional to finish 30th as Dorian Coninx kept the French run going with another surprise win.

While sixth place looks well within Yee grasp – and a lower finish would suffice if Bergere doesn’t win the race – there are no guarantees, with the biggest danger on the 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run course being that he gets caught on the wrong side of a bike breakaway.

There should be some insurance in place though. With seven British men on the start list – including Sam Dickinson who worked as a pilot for Yee in the Olympics – even if Yee does have a bad swim, GB fans will hope he has the support on two wheels to haul himself back into contention.

On the women’s side, Cassandre Beaugrand heads to Andalusia as the No 1 ranked athlete and despite an equally perfect record has a far slimmer margin to defend than Yee. It is no surprise that reigning champion Beth Potter is Beaugrand’s closest challenger.

The roles were reversed last year when Potter capped a memorable year by winning the season-ending race in Pontevedra to close out a dominant year. This time Beaugrand has a 114pt advantage with Germany’s in-form Lisa Tertsch also well in contention, just 18pts behind the Brit. 

That means second place would be good enough for Beaugrand to ensure a first individual world title having finished runner-up at junior (2014), Under-23 (2018) and senior (2023) level. 

Georgia Taylor-Brown, the 2020 world champion who is currently dominating the Supertri series, is ranked fifth overall and 540pts adrift, which is surely too much to close. 

However, given the 30-year-old’s recent form and a first WTCS podium of the year in Wehai, it looks as if Taylor-Brown could present a stiff challenge for the individual race win.

Kate Waugh is the other GB woman in the top 10, with a fifth place in Weihai contributing to her overall standing of eighth. Having come through a stressful Olympic selection process, the 2022 Under-23 world champion may feel she slightly under performed in 2024, but other than the Games themselves, where she placed 15th, she has still placed top 10 in every WTCS event.

Where does Alex Yee need finish to win the WTCS title?

Finish no lower than sixth and Yee will win his first senior world triathlon crown. If Bergere doesn’t win, but Wilde does, then Yee could finish seventh and still take the title.

Where does Beth Potter need finish to win the WTCS title?

The ideal scenario for Potter to retain her world title is to win the race in Torremolinos and see another athlete finish ahead of Beaugrand. If Potter finishes second, the title could still be hers if Beaugrand places fourth, although Germany’s Tertsch could top them both by taking the tape.

World Triathlon Championship Series predictions

Barring incident or injury – and history shows we’d be foolish to rule it out in the WTCS grand final – Yee should finally make it third time lucky in his world title bid. Jury service might have seemed an odd reason for missing Supertri Toulouse, but should also give him an additional chance to freshen up for the big race in Andalusia.

On the women’s side, Beaugrand has been the athlete of the season. Like Yee, she starts with a perfect three wins from three, although a slightly lower points tally because the WTCS Hamburg victory was over sprint distance. As such, it would be a rightful coronation to see the Frenchwoman – who is coached in Loughborough by Gavin Smith – take the title.  

If both Yee and Beaugrand can win world crowns it will also match the previously unprecedented Olympic gold-world title double achieved by Flora Duffy and Kristian Blummenfelt in 2021.