Potter is getting Hotter with Back-To-Back Wins in Korea
Beth Potter is getting hotter with back-to-back wins in Korea as the Scottish athlete crossed the winning line to take her second victory in a week at the World Triathlon Cup in Tongyeong only seven days after her victory in Haeundae.
GB’s Kate Waugh who secured a British one-two last time out taking silver behind Potter in Haeundae was expected to challenge her compatriot and training partner for the gold medal once again. And she did not disappoint, but did not quite have enough in the locker to outpace the running prowess of the Scot and once again took 2rd place to take home yet another silver medal.
Pre-race the result was not a foregone conclusion and there were many top women triathletes in the line-up. None more so than Sandra Dodet of France won the 2019 World Cup Tongyeong, Italy’s reigning Junior World Triathlon Champion Beatrice Mallozz and Australia’s Olympian Emma Jackson bringing a wealth of World Triathlon race experience to the start line,
As in Haeundae this was a sprint race with route featuring a 750-metres swim, 20-kilometres bike and finally a 5km run segment involving two brutal hill climbs.
As the athletes lined up at the water’s edge and the hooter sounded it was Beth Potter who was a woman on a mission and sped away from the field with only fellow compatriot Kate Waugh able to hold on to her slip-stream. As British duo exited the water, they had built up a considerable lead of over 20 seconds over the chasing swimmers.
In and out of transition and Potter was putting down the watt bombs from the get-go but Waugh is a powerful biker and eased along Potter and the two worked superbly together over the three laps of the 20k bike route not easing up for one moment. Taking the brutal hill climbs like a Sunday training session in the Yorkshire Dales the race started to become a no contest as the British duo were building up a sizeable time gap from the chasing pack with over a minute lead.
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As they headed towards T2 Waugh did the sensible thing and powered down to give herself a chance of the win, know her training partners speed on the 5k run. As Waugh exited T2 she had built up a 15 second lead over Potter. But it was not enough to outrun the fastest road 5k runner in the world. Waugh did not give up the ghost as Potter passed her in the first lap and dug deep to keep Potter in sight over the 5k distance. And the positions did not change as Potter crossed the winning line in 00:59:08 to win Gold with Waugh closely behind to take second and the silver medal.
Of the chase pack it was the 2019 Tongyeong winner, Sandra Dodet (FRA) who ran though the field to take the last remaining podium spot and take home the bronze medal.
Following the British duo’s successful conclusion of what has been a spectacular week of race domination in Korea, Beth Potter will now head to the United Arab Emirates to compete at the World Triathlon Championship Series event in Abu Dhabi on November 5 2021.
