Spain and the USA continue to bestride the World Triathlon Series leaderboards for 2015, hogging the top-three spots for the men’s and women’s title races respectively.
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In the men’s rankings, 2014 champ Javier Gomez (ESP) managed to record a winning margin of 45 seconds for WTS Stockholm last weekend – the biggest gap for a WTS race in two years. It surely helped that neither Alistair nor Jonny Brownlee were racing though.
This means that Gomez now has a career record of 34 WTS podiums from 46 race starts, and sits top of the 2015 leaderboard with 3820 points. His high-flying compatriot Mario Mola didn’t have such a good race in Stockholm, finishing 12th, but remains second on the leaderboard (3374pts). Fernando Alarza rounds out the top three (2961pts), thanks to a consistent run of results this season topped by silver in London.
France’s Vincent Luis sits in fourth position (2910pts), having grabbed gold at WTS Hamburg last month and racked up four podiums in total this year. South Africa’s Richard Murray is not far behind with 2857pts, though his best WTS result so far this season was bronze in Abu Dhabi.
And the Brits? Alistair and Jonny are in ninth and tenth at the moment, with just four points between them. Alistair made a strong start to the Rio 2016 test event earlier this month before being forced to slow down by an ankle injury, while Jonny remains out with a stress fracture picked up in St. Moritz. It’s not clear yet if either Brownlee will return to WTS racing this year.
Women’s rankings
Sarah True clearly enjoys Sweden – having grabbed the first WTS gold of her career in Stockholm last year, she repeated the feat over the weekend and strengthened her third place (3322pts) in the leaderboard rankings with just Edmonton and the Chicago Grand Final remaining.
With Gwen Jorgensen (4000pts) having won all six races she has started in 2015, True joins Britain’s Vicky Holland as the only other athlete to reach the top step of a WTS podium in 2015.
The USA’s Katie Zaferes continued her incredible run of second-place finishes in Stockholm, taking her fifth silver medal of the season last weekend, and currently sits in second position behind Jorgensen with 3700pts.
New Zealand’s Andrew Hewitt is in fourth position on the leaderboard with 3131pts, thanks to a consistent run of top-10 finishes that’s included bronze in Auckland and Stockholm. Rachel Klamer (NED) holds fifth position in the points race (2196pts), despite not reaching a WTS podium yet this year.