Potter gains the psychological advantage for Paris Games with big win at supertri E

All eyes were on the women’s race at today’s supertri E world championship in London and the home country hero,Beth Potter (seen above winning last year’s Arena Games world championship – it has been renamed to supertri E)  staked her claim as the favourite to take gold at the Paris Olympics this summer with a big win over French rival Cassandre Beaugrand. American Katie Zaferes kept her Olympic hopes alive with a third-place finish in the world championship event.

Potter and Beaugrand finished first and second at last year’s Paris Test Event, and Potter also took the world championship, two big victories that would certainly give the former track and field Olympian confidence heading into Paris. Now she’s started 2024 with another win over her French rival.

Tonight’s women’s final in London was clearly a duel between the two Olympic favourites right from the gun. Beaugrand led the way out of the water in the first of the three stages (200 m swim, 4 km bike on a trainer using Zwift, 1 km run on a treadmill using Zwift), but Potter caught up on the bike and managed to finish the run with a five second cushion, with Zaferes another 13 seconds behind. The second stage (1 km run, 4 km bike and 200 m swim) saw the pair compete neck and neck, with Potter showing a surprisingly strong swim as she stayed with Beaugrand through the final leg.

That meant Potter got to start the final leg (200 m swim, 4 km bike, 1 km run) with a five second lead, which Beaugrand made up in the swim, setting off a bike and run duel for the world championship title. The two had the same bike split, then started the run together. Potter was finally able to break the Frenchwoman about halfway through the run, with Beaugrand suffering through the last few hundred metres and losing 26 seconds to Potter.

Zaferes remained well clear of the rest of the women, but was never in a position to catch Beaugrand as she cruised to the bronze medal ahead of Germany’s Tanja Neubert, with Czechia’s Petra Kurikova taking fifth.

You can see the full results here.

McQueen takes the men’s title

After a tough day at the Arena Games finals last year, American Chase McQueen (seen above racing at the Arena Games Montreal) came back with a huge day to take the men’s race over Great Britain’s Max Stapley, with France’s Maxime Hueber-Moosbrugger running his way to the bronze medal in the final leg.

McQueen finished a couple of seconds ahead of Stapley in the first leg, then led the way in the second leg by eight seconds over Germany’s Henry Graf and was 10 seconds up on Stapley. That meant the American started the third leg with a sizeable lead and was never challenged for the title.

You can see full results here.