Cassandre Beaugrand and Hayden Wilde led the Bahrain Victorious Scorpions to a silver finish in the Super League Triathlon Championship Series at the thrilling final event in NEOM, Saudi Arabia over the weekend.
Beaugrand took top honours on the day over the Enduro format: a 300-metre swim in the Red Sea, a single-lap 4-kilometre bike leg on a mix of gravel and tarmac surfaces, and a 1.6km run three times back-to-back. Over the final run, her trademark long strides negated the effects of the Short Chute shortcuts taken by eventual champion Kate Waugh and runner-up Jeanne Lehair as she broke the finish tape to win by 11 seconds. While not in the running for the series championship, Beaugrand added a bumper number of points to the Scorpions’ total.
Wilde narrowly missed the win and title defense, having gone shoulder-to-shoulder with eventual champion Leo Bergere throughout the past eight legs until Bergere used his team’s Short Chute in the final run to take a 5-metre lead and finish ahead by 9 seconds. The Scorpions had earlier awarded the team’s Short Chute to Henri Schoeman in a strategic decision to have him finish higher for points.
With three athletes finishing in the top ten in both men’s and women’s races, the Bahrain Victorious Scorpions secured a vice-champion finish, a hefty USD $80,000 in prize money, and a hunger to be back stronger next year.
Meanwhile, Alistair Brownlee completed his third consecutive race weekend at Challenge Vieux Boucau. While he had been closing in on the lead on the run, he later admitted to taking his figurative foot off the gas to finish sixth. He said, “Didn’t feel quite right on the last lap so decided to jog it home to not put myself at risk for future races after the year I’ve had.”
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