The impressive El Anillo Centre in Extremadura, western Spain, welcomes two days of World Championship multisport racing over the weekend of 30-31 October. With Elite, U23, Junior, Para and Age-Group athletes in action across Saturday’s Aquathlon and Sunday’s Cross Triathlon events, some classic rivalries will be reignited for the first time since the last World Championships in Pontevedra two years ago, with world titles - as well as precious qualification points for the aquathlon events at the ANOC World Beach Games 2023 - on the line again.
The weekend, that also incorporates the Spanish Multisport Championships, will bring together more than 1500 athletes to the edge of the Gabriel y Galán reservoir, where the Aquathlon course will see a one-lap, 1km swim followed by a two-lap, 5km run looping round the circular building and through the forest.
For the Cross Triathlon, elites will have the same 1km swim followed by a hilly 21km bike loop featuring three significant climbs, the highest coming just after the halfway mark. Three laps of a 2km run course in and around the El Anillo Centre will decide the 2021 Cross Triathlon World Champions.
World Triathlon Aquathlon Championships
Slovakia’s Richard Varga has been a household name in triathlon for a decade, regularly leading the biggest names in the sport through the water in World Triathlon Championship Series and Cup events. A fourth-place finish at the Europe Triathlon Aquathlon championships in Austria in June will have left Varga hungry for a podium position this time around.
Frenchman Tormento Hugo also finished in the top 10 on his elite debut in Austria, while teammate Brice Daubord is a veteran of World Triathlon racing for over a decade and finished 11th in Pontevedra two years ago. The experienced Spaniard David Castro, a World Triathlon Cup winner back in 2016, will also be hunting his first Aquathlon World Championship medal.
Romania’s Antoanela Manac is an ASICS World Triathlon Team member with huge experience including a third place at the World Beach Games Duathlon competition, and she will face stiff competition from the likes of former Spanish triathlon number one Sara Perez Sala.
Margot Garabedian goes out for France looking to improve on her fifth place in Austria back in June, and Spain’s multiple national championship medalist Sara Guerrero Manso will be eager to deliver a medal on home turf. Garabedian’s compatriot Celine Senia finished third at the European U23 level and the 26-year-old will see El Anillo as a huge opportunity to produce a career-best display.
For the full start lists, click here
World Triathlon Cross Triathlon Championships
Italy’s 2019 World Champion Eleonora Peroncini will be hoping to defend the title she won after a magnificent bike segment in Pontevedra two years ago. Garabedian is the sole female set to compete in both the Cross Triathlon and Aquathlon races, with Mexico’s Michelle Flipo among the big names looking to seize the opportunity of mixing up their racing in Spain.
Flipo won the silver at last month’s Europe Triathlon XTERRA Cross Championships Dolomiti Paganella, finishing behind Sandra Mairhofer. The versatile Italian also won the Winter Triathlon world title in Andorra, and will be raring to go for her next challenge in Extremadura.
Richard Varga and Brice Daubord are also set to line up for the Cross event, but it is Frenchman Arthur Forissier who will can defend the title he won in Pontevedra in 2019.
The two men Forissier pipped to the top of the podium, Ruben Ruzafa (ESP) and Lukas Kocar (CZE) will be looking to the gold once again in El Anillo, though, Ruzafa himself the champion in 2018 and chasing what would be the sixth title of a glittering cross triathlon career. The men’s winner of September’s Dolomiti Paganell XTERRA race, Arthur Serrieres also brings strong recent form to the start list.
For the full start lists, click here
