North American triathlon fans will have to grab a nap this afternoon if they’re going to keep up with the live coverage of the World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) Yokohama – the women race at 9:15 pm tonight, while the men head off at midnight. This is the 16th edition of the race, making it one of the longest-running venues on the WTCS series.
All eyes will be on the highly anticipated duel between reigning Olympic champion Alex Yee and reigning world champion Matt Hauser. The pair missed the WTCS opener in Samarkand – Yee was busy pacing some of his countrymen at the London Marathon, while Hauser was competing at T100 Singapore. Last year Hauser continued an old trend of Yokohama winners going on to become world champion, which had been the case every year from 2014 to 2021. Yee was very much focused on marathon running last year, so only competed in a couple of triathlon races – tomorrow’s race will be his first Olympic-distance race in over 18 months.
Some other men to keep an eye on this weekend include last weekend’s Chengdu World Cup champ Luke Willian (AUS), Brazil’s Miguel Hidalgo, who is motivated to get a top finish after a disappointing DNF in Samarkand and 2024 Yokohama champ, Morgan Pearson. You can see the full men’s start list here.
Beth Potter arrives in Yokohama as the favourite, having taken three WTCS wins in her last four starts, including in Samarkand. A win in Japan will put Potter in a great position for the world championship title, but she’ll have some tough competition to deal with, including reigning world champion Lisa Tertsch, who crashed in Samarkand and ended up 33rd. The defending Yokohama champ, Jeanne Lehair, is also back to contest for another gold medal. American Gwen Jorgensen has won more titles in Yokohama than any other athlete thanks to her four straight wins from 2011 to 2014. Whether or not Jorgensen will finish as the top American will be interesting to watch – Taylor Spivey has finished fourth in Yokohama three times in the last five years, and hasn’t finished out of the top-10 at the race this decade. Others to keep an eye on include reigning T100 world champion Kate Waugh, and her countrywomen Sian Rainsley and Jess Fullagar, along with France’s Emma Lombardi. The full women’s start list is here.
You can check out all the action on TriathlonLive.tv
In case you’re wondering – this race doesn’t count for LA Olympic qualification – the qualification window opens on May 18.
XTERRA Oak Mountain
Photo: @xterraplanet
This weekend sees the XTERRA North America Championship taking place in Oak Mountain State Park near Birmingham, Alabama. XTERRA racing has been taking place at Oak Mountain since 2006. and this weekend’s race also serves as the fourth stop of the 2026 XTERRA World Cup. Today there’s a short track event, while tomorrow’s racing includes a 5 km trail run along with the XTERRA Youth North American Championship and the 2026 USA Triathlon Youth and Junior Cross National Championship.
Photo: xterraplanet.com
The official Oak Mountain World Cup page has the start lists and will have results from the weekend’s racing, and we’ll include a pro-race recap in our “We Noticed” column next week.
T100 Championship Confirmed for Lusall, Qatar
The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) and Visit Qatar announced that Lusall City will be the host of the Qatar T100 Triathlon World Championship Final again this year. The event will also serve as the host of the T100 Age Grouper World Championships. This leaves just one of the nine T100 Tour stops to be finalized – the Saudi Arabia event scheduled for November. Here’s the list of the remaining races on the T100 Triathlon World Tour this year:
- Spain (May 23–24)
- San Francisco (June 6–7)
- Vancouver (August 15–16)
- French Riviera (September 19–20)
- Dubai (November 12–15)
- Saudi Arabia (November)
- Qatar (December 10–12)
Another Sub-2 in Berlin?
Marathon world-record holder Sebastian Sawa will be heading back to Berlin to defend his title in September. (How much more was his appearance fee this year?) Sawa will be just one of the roughly 60,000 athletes from 160 countries expected to compete at the race.
The Kenyan wasn’t ready to commit to another sub-two hour attempt in the press release announcing his participation in the race.
“I am very happy to return to BMW BERLIN-MARATHON this year and to defend my title,” Sawa said. “Many people may be wondering what my goals are this time round. After coming off my win in London and sub-2 performance, I can only say that, like always, I plan to prepare myself to the best of my ability and to come to Berlin to honour this great event and organisation which have invited me, and to run as well and fast as possible.”