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France’s golden couple steal the show at the Long Distance World Championships

Marjolaine Pierre and Clement Mignon take big wins in Ibiza

Photo by: World Triathlon

After a “terrible year” that included four stress fractures, France’s Marjoleine Pierre joined her boyfriend Clement Mignon (who enjoyed a much brighter 2022 with top-10 finishes in Kona and the 70.3 worlds) at the top of the podium at today’s World Triathlon Long Distance World Championship in Ibiza.

Matthews pulls out

Pierre was in third out of the water, 30 seconds behind swim leader Helene Albedo Sololuze (ESP), with pre-race favourite Kat Matthews two-minutes back after the 3 km swim. By 30 km into the bike Pierre had already flown to the lead and was two-minutes clear of Matthews. By the halfway point of the bike ride the lead was up to six minutes over a group that included Matthews and her countrywoman Ruth Astle.

Matthews would pull out shortly after that – no doubt feeling the effects of her big win in Texas two weeks ago (that included a sub-2:50 marathon). Astle would hang on to second position into T2, but also pulled out early in the run, still recovering from a calf injury. That left Sara Svensk as the closest pursuer to Pierre for the 30 km run, but the Swede was already seven minutes down and never threatened the fast-running Frenchwoman as she flew to the world title in 5:53:35, with Svensk taking the silver medal in 6:02:10 and Spain’s Gurutze Frades Larralde rounding out the podium.

You can see full results here.

Mignon rallies after bike crash

Two of the sport’s fastest swimmers – Slovakia’s Richard Varga and Aussie Josh Amberger – were first out of the water, with a group of six that included Mignon. Canadian Cody Beals was just under three minutes behind starting the bike, while Great Britain’s Joe Skipper was six minutes down.

Mignon appeared to be in a great position coming into T2 – over the closing stages of the bike he and breakaway partner Rico Bogen from Germany had managed to drop Spain’s Antonio Benito Lopez. Those three were well clear of the rest of the field into T2 – Amberger was four minutes back, Skipper and countryman James Teagle were over seven minutes back, and Beals hit T2 over 11 minutes down. Mignon caught a pedal coming into transition, though, and crashed to the ground. “Dazed and a little shaken” (as reported by World Triathlon), Mignon appeared to be just trying to hang on through the first lap of the run as Benito Lopez pulled into the lead during the second lap.

Over the final 10 km Mignon rallied and moved back to the lead, taking the win in 5:17:17, with Benito Lopez following just 32 seconds later. South Africa’s Matt Trainman would round out the podium in 5:19:52.

Beals took 25th in 5:36:55.

Full men’s results are here.