That is for sure and Ms Beaugrand is just turning 21 this year, so potentially a very long career at the top ahead for her.

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"Anyone can be who they want to be IF they have the HUNGER and the DRIVE."

And her name is Emma which almost guarantees a spot for Australia.

If she achieves the required results in the specified races she will make the team. If her name is all she got to get her there then Aus are in trouble.

She's been placing ahead of them in pretty much every race, and Hamburg was no different. She has the most ITU olympic qualification points out of any AUS female triathlete, but she wasn't named to the Commonwealth Games roster, and wasn't picked for the MTR tomorrow in Hamburg. Gentle and Van Coevorden (who actually did place ahead of her in the Hamburg race today, totally missed her name) were. Saw something she posted on her instagram about her missing out on contention for the Tokyo team.

No shit sherlock... pull up the history on the name Emma when it comes Australia and triathlon it was a joke.

Trust me I am an Aus so I know the history, but as you have probably now also seen HeartRN and if they are right about her having a sook on social media then you will understand that the joke is no longer funny when the athlete appears to expect to get on teams without the results.

Oh come on, every one of those girls have achieved at least one WTS podium, (these are the races that actually count) Emma has her best as an 11th. World cups and conti cups are second and third tier, she has podiumed there but never a top ten in WTS, why would she expect to get on a team with out the results required. At this stage Tokyo teams are so far off decided if she is having a sook it is way out of line, maybe that is why it has been removed as I cant see anything on her social media now.
Olympic selection points only started at Yokohama so had nothing what so ever towards commonweath games, and her having the most points is because she has raced more world cup races in this time frame, some have none, as I said they are 2ND tier and not selection races for a country as string as aus.

I think it was on her story, I tried to find it again as well and couldn't. As far as achieving a podium goes, you're right, they haven't been WTS races. But they've still been against some pretty strong competitors (aka outracing Kirsten Kasper at Mooloolaba...as well as her other Aussies).

But kasper had just raced abudhabi and flown over so woukdbhad a lot of fatigue. Now if any com games Aussie girls were racing mooloolaba it was so far from being their goal race for season they would have gone in with huge amounts of fatigue and not with the goal to win but to practice and check certain aspects of their form. As you will begin to see early season races for established wts athletes are more about a tough training day than their goal race...

Just caught up with the womens race which I think was probably the best women's race I've seen since Rio,

Have we just wintnessed the new Gwen anounce herself to Triathlon??

Duffy was clearly not 100% but Spirig probably not either and maybe a couple of years past her prime but I always wondered how her and Stimpson in a chase pack would effect a race and she managed to out bike Duffy.

Zaffaries is brilliant and she's a bit of a dark horse to win the title outright I think, good to see Stimpson back competing for a podium the end of the season is starting to look a bit more interesting.

Beaugrand had an outstanding race. And if one paid attention to the Nottingham relay (where she had the fastest split) then this result shouldn’t be too much of a surprise. At this point I think a better historical comparison would be the “new Paula.” Longevity in women’s ITU is never guaranteed. I certainly hope that she will stay healthy and make steady improvement on the bike. She can certainly be an excellent foil to a healthy Duffy. But I also wouldn’t be surprised if she wins 5 races over the next 2 years and then never see the top again.

As for the American women: Spivey keeps steadily improving, Zaferes and Kasper looked flat and still had consistent top finishes, Knibb not quite showing the bike prowess from late last year, and poor Cook continues to struggle to put together a bike ride despite the podium level swim-run ability.

Also if we get to vote on color commentary auditions I have liked Lisa Norden best with a close second going to Vicky Holland.

Men's race again brilliant! Easily the best this year for me! Had everything, shame Blum had something wrong with him after all the work put in.

Gutted for Jonny, I wonder/hope if he's slowly moving himself back into full fitness/form towards the back end of the season though.

I thought he looked a bit off, didn't have a great swim, looked like he wasn't putting as many turns in on the break so if he does get to 100% maybe he cloese the gap.

Cassandra has been a top level junior, a world junior champs podium athlete with many French grand Prix wins against the big names. Those that know of her are aware that pretty much always, anyone that gets off the bike with her, she will beat. I believe she will be around for a long while yet, continually improving her bike as she builds strength that comes with age.
The other French girl in their relay team is also very impressive.
The relay was brilliant entertainment. The French always had it in the bag, but that final leg was a game changer for the other teams.

Mixed Relay

1. France dominates
2. Katie Zaferes smashed things up again
3. Kevin McDowell needs to be replaced by someone who won't be embarrassed on the run like that

I think sometimes you go with athletes who are healthy.........

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

Indeed. Not coming from nowhere. And she's been winning or placing on podiums of running race championships in France. Not only she's an uber-runner, but she also places in the top 3-5 of WTS swims. She's actually ahead of Gwen at the same age, with already a top-level swim to go with her dominant run pedigree, and just like Gwen she'll look to slowly get stronger on the bike. Unlike Summer Cook, she can handle a bike, she doesn't lose 15 meters every corner.

Her arms are as skinny as Gwen's too.

Jesus that is a bit harsh, I don't think Kevin embarrassed himself on the run. He absolutely smashed himself in the swim and bike to try to keep upfront of Bishop and put enough ground between himself and Birtwhistle. Over his entire fourth leg he pulled a further 8 seconds away from Bishop who we have seen run himself into a WTS podium before. Birtwhistle just had a brilliant run, he supposedly was around a 4 min miler as a junior. This is a distance that really suits him, if aus didn't have Birtwhistle racing this race on this day it would have been a different finish I am sure. (See Nottingham)

I have just looked at the last years Hamburg results and interestingly, Birtwhistle started his leg exactly 40 seconds behind McElroy here also.. In the 2017event most of his time gain was on the swim/ bike, but the end result was exactly the same.

You are correct, the result was the same. The are a few differences in how the performances played out. As you noted, Berwhistle got McElroy on the swim and the bike. McElroy actually was chasing Bertwhistle down on the run and outran him by 3 seconds over the course of that leg.

The other major difference would be the performance of McDowell in relation to the rest of the field, specifically the leg right in front of the anchor (Zaferes). Zaferes was within 3.67% of McDowell's time (and actually had a faster run split than McDowell). Likewise, Zaferes was 4.56% slower than McElroy on total time. So in relation to each other you can say that Zaferes over performed against the anchor in 2018 or the anchor under performed against leg 3.

Regardless, my biggest concern is the run leg of the anchor position in a race that ends this close (2 seconds in 2018 and 4 seconds in 2017). McElroy was, in theory, running Bertwhistle down and was within SECONDS of him coming off of the bike. McDowell, however, had about a 39 second lead coming off of the bike and gave it ALL back on the run (plus two seconds).

Yes, they both ended by being beat by just seconds...but the way they played out was very different.


Last thing. McElroy is going to be racing this weekend...for Major League Triathlon...doing a mixed relay. I think he would have been healthy enough to secure 2nd overall as the anchor.

Tokyo 2020 Olympics schedule is out:

-Monday July 27th Men's Race
-Tuesday July 28th Women's Race
-Saturday Aug 1st MTR

Theoretically that's *enough* rest so that they dont have too many obvious sand bagging individual racers.

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

Has it been confirmed that its at Oly distance?

Also whats the course like?

great catch. is that the second week like in rio?

Olympics July 24- Aug 9th in Tokyo.

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

wow. they are sticking it right up front. not good for the athletes as they might have to skip the opening ceremony.