A grand win!

Cassandre Beaugrand bagged both individual and team victories over the weekend, spearheading the Bahrain Victorious 13 team’s triumphant outing at World Triathlon Championship Series Sunderland in the United Kingdom, writes Lisa Pringle.

The French super sprint world champion was once again in her element over the shorter triathlon distances. Across the sprint distance on Saturday, she emerged from the 750-metre wetsuit swim in second, then rode in the lead group of seven athletes for most of the 21km bike leg before the chase pack bridged the gap. Once on the run though, Beaugrand rocketed to the front, kept the pace high, then left her competitors to fight for the minor medals as she took the tape. She also rises four spots to #2 in the world, a new career best for her.

She said, “It was a great day for me, I have been training really well and all my training group was here to cheer for me, my coach, my boyfriend. It was a very special day for me today!”

But she wasn’t done yet. On Sunday Beaugrand lined up to anchor the French team in the mixed relay and executed a flawless performance over a 300m swim, 7-km bike, and 1.7-km run to serve a 10-second penalty for the team and still run comfortably to victory.

Hayden Wilde scored a bronze medal finish in the men’s individual race, which has bumped him up to #1 in the world. The reigning super sprint world champion put on a valiant effort to stay within striking distance on the chase packs in the swim and bike; his run took the Kiwi into a three-way contest with two Frenchmen, Pierre le Corre and Leo Bergere.

Originally meant to sit out the mixed relay, Wilde helped take the team to a fourth-place finish, filling in a spot when half the New Zealand team were unable to race due to food poisoning. On the penultimate leg, he closed the gap to Team Great Britain and handed off to his teammate with a five-second advantage.

Only seven seconds away from Wilde in the individual race, Henri Schoeman logged a sixth place finish that lifted him six places to 18th in the world rankings. He then backed up to race for South Africa the following day, finishing 15th and picking up valuable points for mixed relay Olympic qualification.

The coming weekend’s racing for the Bahrain Victorious 13 features Jan Frodeno, Kat Matthews, Amelia Watkinson, and Holly Lawrence lining up for the Professional Triathletes Organisation US Open in Milwaukee. Expect these champion athletes to race hard from start to finish over the 100K distance – 2km swim, 80km bike, and 18-km run – battling for a piece of the $600,000 prize purse amid a deep professional field that includes Olympic and world champions.