How, who and what to watch at the World Super-Sprint Championships this weekend

Seemingly stealing a page from Super League Triathlon, World Triathlon will utilize the “Eliminator” format to decide the Super-Sprint World Championships this weekend in Hamburg.

Long one of the most famous World Triathlon Championship Series courses with hundreds of thousands of spectators on hand to watch the events, the course has been modified to include “a 300m swim in the Binnenalster lake, a tight and technical three-lap, 7.5 km bike through the city centre and two-lap, 1.6km run in front of the Rathaus,” according to World Triathlon.

“Qualifiers and Repechage races will see the fastest 30 men and 30 women through to the Saturday’s three-stage finals,” today’s release continued. “There, the last 10 across the finish line will be cut from the next stage’s start, until just 10 athletes are left to battle it out for not only the golds, but precious Series points and the first Super-Sprint world titles.”

The busy weekend of racing in Hamburg also includes the Mixed Relay World Championships, the junior world championships and the age group sprint world championships. Here’s the schedule for the weekend’s racing, all of which will be covered on TriathlonLive.TV:

Thu 13 July
3PM Opening Ceremony and Parade of Nations
5PM Women’s Junior World Championships
7PM Men’s Junior World Championships

Fri 14 July
8AM Elite Men’s Super-Sprint World Championship Qualifiers
10AM Elite Women’s Super-Sprint World Championship Qualifiers
MIDDAY Age Group Sprint World Championships
7PM Elite men’s and women’s Repechages

Sat 15 July
1PM Jr/U23 Mixed Relay World Championships
4.20PM Elite Men’s and Women’s Super-Sprint World Championship Finals

Sun 16 July
2.15PM Elite Mixed Relay World Championships
4.15PM Age Group Mixed Relay World Championships
8.45PM Closing Ceremony

Wide open men’s race

Great Britain’s Alex Yee took the race in Montreal last year, and won the Super League Triathlon Championship Series two years ago, so he’s obviously good at this format of racing. Last year’s Super League champ, Hayden Wilde has been the man closest to Yee at the top of draft-legal racing over the last few years. Add to the mix a steadily improving Kristian Blummenfelt, the Tokyo Olympic champion, who has been getting his sprint legs back after a few years of long-distance focus. Canadians Tyler Mislawchuk, Charles Paquet and Brock Hoel are also in the field.

Here’s the men’s start list.

Can Potter take a third gold?

Great Britain’s Beth Potter is the only woman to have won two WTCS titles this year, and got her first WTCS podium in this format, so she’ll arrive in Hamburg as the woman to beat. The top two women in the WTCS standings, Americans Taylor Spivey and Summer Rappaport, have both had top-five finishes in this format in the past, so are likely to be in the mix in Saturday’s final, too. Canada will be represented by Dominika Jamnicky and Emy Legault.

Here’s the women’s start list.

Mixed Relay qualification

The winner of the Mixed Relay World Championships will automatically qualify two men and women for the Games in Paris next summer – which will roll down to the runner-up if Great Britain, which has already qualified, wins the race.