What's going on with Johnny Brownlee,?
Gone from Abu Dhabi waitlist,? Gone from European race that he was initially on the start list for. ITU has no upcoming races scheduled. Yet his social media has him doing track etc,,?

An athlete who is trying to hold on for “one last go”….I’ve always said an athlete’s career is fast and slow and some years go by fast and some years seems to be an lifetime. The final years for an athlete has to be a mental and physical anguish no doubt. He’s probably trying to find one last fitness boost.

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

So Waugh easily meets your standard.

Not in the Test Event, I don’t think quite.

I've done a quick check of last year's results Dannyboy.
Literally 7th at the Paris Test event is "not a world class performance" on your 10% threshold (64 started).
But
Effectively you are saying the only athletes you'd include as 'world class performers' (>2 top 6s) over the season are Beaugrand, Lombardi, Spivey and Potter: that's it! NB Waugh's #5 in Yokohama (so not 'one off').
Edit: Let's not forget, in the context of an MTR leg if nothing else, Kate Waugh was crowned 2023 Super League Triathlon Champion. World Class!

On a separate tack, I am concerned that you hypothesise that weight loss might be a reason for Waugh's better run speed but bow to your ability to judge an athlete's leanness. Are there other athletes that you've judged in similar fashion? Please don't name them, but reflect.

I would say last year there were about 5 world class athletes in the WTS female field. Can debate exactly who and of course there is subjectivity everywhere you look.

I think it is well known that an athletes mass generally reflects their performance on the run, in exactly the same way as it is in grand tour cycling - for both men and women. For example Wiggins 2011 vs 2012.

And in general athletes get leaner over the course of a season, partially deliberately, partially due to not being able to keep up with the calorific intake required at the height of race session due to the intensity of racing regularly.

Ok, sure.

Do we take anything from Gwen’s win in Cuba? Expected, but always good to win, even when favored. Looks like a front pack swim (FWIW at that level).

Obviously much more to learn from Abu Dhabi, but seems like a good start, especially with the added adversity of the bike coming late.

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team

i guess your argument about less weight would maybe make sense if RED S did not exist and many careers in elite sport have been destroyed by people that make your argument.

Check box result on to the big gals racing league now. We'll know a ton of her swim and bike fitness in 2 weeks time.

(If she doesn't have the bike power to breakaway from a Conti Cup level competition, we'll know more in 2 weeks. If she purposely "sat in" to use the race more as a shake out effort to work we'll know more in 2 weeks....I can see justification for both "race plans" but I also note that this race trip 2 weeks prior to Abu Dhabi does her no favors with the disruption in training block to then hand hold Conti Cup level athletes 2 weeks out on the bike).

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Well, I think all athletes who make a WTCS start list are already world class. Maybe you're trying to find a definition for world bests?

Anyone who can podium at WTC level (not a fluke result) has to be world class, I agree she needs to back things up this year though (I'm sure she will)

Knowing Cal, it was just a bit of fun and banter. As you say, he showed he respected Hayden by acknowledging his world best abilities in the interview. It's also in the context of his first major victory at the world level, some may remember the Daniel Baekkegard bashing after his first victory and celebration too.

After 6 years in the elite level and now a first victory, I don't think you can label him 'arrogant' or 'full of himself' were the words used above by someone. Good on him for working hard on his swim these last 6 years that he is now in a place where he can race for the win. He has also worked hard to bring his bike to a level where he can now use his run prowess at this level. Not quite yet at the level where he dictates how the race is played on the bike, but enough for him to bike hard and make the right pack and not blow up later. Exciting for him and well deserved!

Am I missing a trick? He is wait list No 1 for Abu Dhabi. All the others are already on the start list or exceeding maximum

I can't for the life of me find the wait list link anymore. The one I used last year is stuck in '23 wait lists. What or where is the link?

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Brooks Doughtie, M.S.
Exercise Physiology
-USAT Level II

Search “waiting list” on World Triathlon site and it comes up

Not in the latest wait list
Just checked

I am absolutely clueless when it comes to points and Olympic qualification etc, where is the current GB Men in terms of qualification? Do GB have 3 places for the men? Can remember the scramble last time round to try and qualify Ali and get a 3rd place, are we going to get a similar scenario this time round?

Also, as huge a fan of Jonny I am, can't imagine him being any faster than he was last year, what does he need to do to auto qualify for GB team or is it completely discretionary?

file:///Users/Peter/Downloads/Olympic_simulation_Paris_NOC-2.pdf


france and germany at present are the only 2 countries that have 3 males and females and they are well secure and that wont change.

at present uks 2nd and 3rd athlete are 45 and 48 in the oly ranking and they need to get both in the top 30 to get 3 spots

GB currently has only 2 male spots - qualified via the relay. Only Alex Yee is ranked in the top 30 men and so they'd need to get two others in there to earn a 3rd spot.

Barclay Izzard is 45th on 2554pts, Jonny is 48th on 2427. 30th is currently at 3090pts but that will most likely go up as other athletes gain points too. So it's possible for GB still to earn 3 spots but probably depends on those two earning some decent WTCS points from the 3 remaining races (2 for Jonny as he's not doing Abu Dhabi individual). Sam Dickinson is the 4th Brit in 63rd but with 1952 points that seems a lot to make up with 4 World Cups left. Would also be another worldwide scramble as they are in Hong Kong, Australia, China and Mexico. He's also not currently on the start list for Hong Kong. He could still get on the start list for Abu Dhabi (5th on the wait list), but wouldn't necessarily score more points there than in a WC.

There's no specific criteria that Jonny has to meet - everything is discretionary now. However it's obvious GB need to select someone who is solid for leg 1 of the relay which is probably why he is concentrating on showcasing this in Abu Dhabi.

GB have two men qualified by virtue of being qualified for the relay. So yes, if they want a third they would have to scramble and it seems unlikely they will succeed.
As of performances last year, Johnny is still there best relay choice (apart from Alex Yee)

Brownlee not racing AD individual implies that he (BriTri) are almost resigned to not earning a third men's spot (AGAIN) and Brownlee getting the nod, provided he's there or thereabouts for a super sprint distance (Leg 2).

Diabolo wrote:

After 6 years in the elite level and now a first victory, I don't think you can label him 'arrogant' or 'full of himself' were the words used above by someone. Good on him for working hard on his swim these last 6 years that he is now in a place where he can race for the win. He has also worked hard to bring his bike to a level where he can now use his run prowess at this level. Not quite yet at the level where he dictates how the race is played on the bike, but enough for him to bike hard and make the right pack and not blow up later. Exciting for him and well deserved!

I'm older than I'd like to admit so I don't like the excessive celebrations crap. But that's my problem, not his.

I think he may have been celebrating because that win appears to have gotten him a start at Abu Dhabi. He's listed as replacing Dart. I think they took him over Birtwhistle

https://www.triathlon.org/uploads/docs/Waiting_lists2.pdf


for those who care: This weekend a swimmer won the 1650 at the ACC conference champs, and when he was sitting on the lane line he fell into the lane next to him. That swimmer was done with his race, BUT there were people still finishing. So he went into another lane while the competition was ongoing. Thus he got DQ'd.

it's going to take 3400-3600 points to make it.

JB can easily get there, because unlike many others, he's not "replacing" points with his results. Anything he scores goes straight on the pile. If he gets 15th place in 3 races, I think he ends up with 3600 points. Doesn't mean he will do it, but its' not inconceivable.

If Izzard were to do the same thing - 3 15th place finishes - he would end up behind Brownlee. So for this to even be possible, the first thing he needs to do is get close to top 10 at Abu Dhabi. Same goes for Rider USA. I mean, we all know this very unlikley to happen, but we might as well wait until Abu Dhabi to officially close the book on USA or GB getting 3 men.

I think Spain's going to get 3 men.

i didn't realize that spain (without mola or gomez) has 5 guys in good spots for top 30. usa still has a decent shot to get 3 guys but little room for bad races this spring. it's weird that australia has no shot at 3.