Brownlee and Dodet kickstart Olympic qualification with wins in Arzachena World Cup

Great Britain’s Jonny Brownlee and France’s Sandra Dodet kickstarted the Paris 2024 Olympic Qualification period winning the 2022 Triathlon World Cup season opener in Arzachena, Italy.

Once again, the World Cup race returned to Arzachena, on the beautiful Italian island of Sardinia which has become notorious for its testing bike course and great weather conditions.

The race start list consisted of a lot of in-form athletes all gunning for those crucial Olympic points in the run up to the 2024 Paris Games with the backdrop of the Sprint-Distance race being the splendid scenery of Cannigione in the territory of Arzachena.

The stunning coastal sprint-distance course began with a 750m swim off the idyllic beaches of the main town before the bike course headed north on a long and demanding climb out into the surrounding hills and back down into the town streets and the race concluded with two laps of a 2.5km section along the Cannigione seafront with an eye always turned to the crystalline sea of the Costa Smeralda.

In the men’s event much interest was in Olympic champion and three-time Olympic medallist Jonny Brownlee who won the event last year. He was joined on the start line with fellow British triathletes Harry Leleu, Grant Sheldon and Jack Willis.

Whilst in the women’s event Great Britain’s sole representative was Sophie Allen who comes into the race off the back of two top-10 finishes at Europe Triathlon Cup events this year.

Men’s Race

Under the hot and baking Sardiana sunshine the 64 athletes lined up for a non-swimsuit swim in the warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea. No surprises to see the swim merchants of triathlon, Mark Devay (HUN) and Richard Varga (SVK) head the snake-like procession of athletes all swimming frantically over the 750m swim to reach the shoreline.

Brownlee who came out eight in the swim put down a power marker on the bike section of whom only Devay, Dylan McCullough (NZL) and Tom Richard (FRA) could maintain as they surged up the demanding hill climbs. And by the last lap of three this quartet were some 45 seconds ahead of the chasing pack as they entered T2.

Out onto the 5k run and it was Great Britian’s Brownlee who showed he was the man in form as he glided, what appeared, effortlessly into the lead. And there he remained until he strode down the blue carpet to cross the finishing tape in a time of 00:54:08.

Only one of the strong runners in the chasing pack were able to pull back the huge time deficit on the run. Manoel Messias (BRA) caught up with Richard and Devay with the fastest run of the day but ran out of tarmac to hunt for the win and settled for second place. It was Frenchman Richard who took the third spot ahead of Hungarian Devay in fourth place.

For Brownlee the aims of this race were preparation for the Commonwealth Games and to start the points scoring process to go into Paris. And he executed it perfectly.

Of the other British triathletes Jack Willis was 24^th and Harry Leleu 46^th.

Top Six Men’s Results

1. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) – 54:08
2. Manoel Messias (BRA) – 54:20
3. Tom Richard (FRA) – 54:35
4. Mark Devay (HUN) – 54:41
5. Max Studer (SUI) – 54:58
6. Alberto Gonzalez Garcia (ESP) – 55:13

Full results here:

Women’s Race

Whilst the women’s race was missing some of the big names of the circuit there were several younger and less experienced athletes on the start line who were eager to prove themselves on a tough and demanding course.

In the calm warm waters of the Mediterranean Sea no breakaway group was formed as Zsanett Bragmayer (HUN), Bianca Seregni (ITA), Mathilde Gautier (FRA) and Great Britain’s Sophie Alden lead the athletes out onto the gruelling bike section.

In extremally hot condition it was only Gautier of France who was willing to power down and although having over a 20 second lead on lap two of three she was alone with a chasing pack of some 20 athletes conserving their energy and waiting to pounce on the lone Frenchwomen toward the end of the bke leg.

And so, it was to be the case as the chasing group reduced the deficit on the last hill of the course catching Gautier and turning the race into a 5k run for the finish line.

It was Miriam Casilas Garcia (ESP), and local hero Verena Steinhauser (ITA) a twice bronze medalist on this course who set an impressive pace. This soon formed in a front pack of five as the two leading runners were joined by Dodet (FRA), Luisa Baptista (BRA) and Julie Derron (SUI).

At the half-way stage, it was the Frenchwomen Dodet who began to set the pace which no one could keep with as she crossed the winning tape in 1:00:31. A 200m dash between Baptista and Derron for second and third place developed with the Swiss star having to settle for silver unable to jump up the podium following last year’s second place whilst Luisa Baptista took home the bronze.