WTCS Abu Dhabi Preview

World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) racing starts up tomorrow in Abu Dhabi. It’s always interesting to see how things shape up in the world of elite draft-legal racing in a post-Olympic year, and this year is no different as we have one defending Olympic and world champion trying his hand at a marathon on the spring (Alex Yee is gearing up for the London Marathon), another skipping the first race of the WTCS season after running a national 5 km record (see below), and the reigning Grand Final champ, Hayden Wilde, appearing in what might be his only WTCS race of the season.

WTCS Season

There will be six races in this year’s WTCS season according to World Triathlon:

The new season will start with WTCS Abu Dhabi (UAE) on 15-16
February, followed by WTCS Yokohama (JPN) on 17 May, WTCS Italy
(location to be confirmed) on 31 May, WTCS Hamburg (GER) on 12-13
May, WTCS Karlovy Vary (CZE) on 14 September and WTCS Weihai (CHN)
on 26 September. The 2025 World Champions will be crowned at the
Championship Finals Wollongong (AUS) on 15-19 October.

Scoring System

Winners of events earn 1,000 points, with the points reducing by 7.5% for each following place. The Championship Finals offer 1,250 points for the win with the same reduction. There is a rule change that will take effect after the race in Abu Dhabi – all races, whether sprint or standard distance, will offer the same points. Because that rule won’t go into effect until Feb. 27, this weekend’s race will be worth 750 points, the same as previous sprint distance races.

Prize Money

The WTCS world champion will earn $70,000, with second taking US$40,000 and third $26,000. The prize money will be awarded down to 35th place ($1,500). The win at the Championship Final will be worth $30,000, with second taking $20,000 and third $15,000. Prize money there will be awarded down to 40th ($1,000). Regular season WTCS events will earn $19,000 to the winner, $12,000 for second and $8,000 for third, with prize money going down to 30th place ($1,000).

Live Coverage

You can watch all of the WTCS races live at TriathlonLive.TV. World Triathlon has moved to a new platform this year, which should improve on what is already pretty decent coverage of the races. Here’s part of the messaging they provided on that front:

If you head over to www.triathlonlive.tv you will notice some changes to when you were last there. The TriathlonLive app is also live and available via the app stores on Apple and Google devices, which you can Chromecast to your TV or access direct on both Apple and Android TVs. 

Tomorrow’s races will stream at 5 am EST (women) and 7 am EST (men).

Wilde Headlines

As mentioned earlier, Olympic silver medalist Hayden Wilde highlights the men’s race this weekend. It’s not certain how much WTCS racing he’ll be doing this year – when we spoke to him after his runner-up finish at the IRONMAN 70.3 World Championship in Taupo, New Zealand last year, he said he would be focused on T100 and Supertri races this year.

Others to keep an eye on tomorrow include Australian Matt Hauser, Portugal’s Vasco Vilaca and American Morgan Pierson, fresh off a 1:01:01 half marathon run a few weeks ago. (OK, there’s a long list of big names I could add to that list, I know …) Suffice it to say that the strong field should make for some strong racing.

Here’s the full men’s start list.

Jorgensen Looks for WTCS Success

After winning in Weihei last year and taking fourth in the overall standings, Germany’s Lisa Tertsch will wear number one in Abu Dhabi tomorrow. Many triathlon fans (especially American ones) will be eager to see if 2016 Olympic gold medalist Gwen Jorgensen can crack the WTCS code and get onto the podium. The American has enjoyed a lot of World Cup success since her return to triathlon after giving running a shot, but hasn’t enjoyed the same success at the higher-level WTCS races.

World and Olympic champ Cassandre Beaugrand won’t be in the field, but that hardly means the race won’t be a competitive one. Some of the big names racing tomorrow include Germany’s Laura Lindemann, France’s Leonie Periault, Luxumbourg’s Jeanne Lehair, Great Britain’s Kate Waugh, American Taylor Spivey and Mexico’s Rosa Maria Tapia. Once again you can add a bunch of other names to the potential podium list – it should be an exciting race.

Here’s the women’s start list.

We’ll be back with coverage of tomorrow’s races.

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