Dorian Coninx Wins Grand Final, Series Championship
With the top three finishers finishing with the same recorded time of 1:42:22, and a trio of Frenchmen finishing in the top four, Dorian Coninx of France won the race and the season series title in a chaotic dash for the finish line at the World Triathlon Championship Series Grand Final in Pontevedra, Spain.
Coninx started the day ranked 5th in the series, well behind the points leaders Hayden Wilde of New Zealand and Alex Yee of Great Britain. Coninx parlayed a 6th best swim and 6th best bike splits to finish with a 3rd-best 29:46 run to finish in 1:42:22 – one step ahead of runner-up Tim Hellwig of Germany and another step ahead of bronze medalist and fellow Frenchman Pierre Le Corre. Rounding out the French wave, defending World Champion Leo Bergere took 4th place, 6 seconds ahead of 5th place Lasse Luhrs of Germany.
“I thought it was impossible (to win),” Coninx told World Triathlon media. “I just wanted to focus on my race and do a good race to end a nice season. But this was way better than expected! We really wanted to push on the bike and it’s been the same thing in the races all season so we wanted to try something new as a team and it worked. Hayden (Wilde) and Alex (Yee) really dominated the season, but I knew I could do a good race. I wasn’t expecting to win, I just pushed as hard as I can. It’s crazy.”
Bad luck haunted 2023 pre-race series leaders Hayden Wilde of New Zealand and Alex Yee of Great Britain. Wilde suffered a 15 seconds penalty for losing his swim cap, throwing him off the lead pack into 50th place, 49 seconds behind the leader. By the end, Wilde scratched and clawed his way back to 9th place at the finish and 2nd place in the overall points series. Without a 15-seconds penalty for an excuse, Yee had a miserable swim that relegated him to 51st place and after a below par – for him – run, Yee finished in 29th place on the day and 5th in the series points chase.
Coninx’s win completed a recent French domination of the Men’s World Triathlon Olympic distance championships, following wins by Vincent Luis in 2019 and 2020 and Leo Bergere in 2022. While Leo Bergere had a more dominating season in 2022 – claiming three WTCS podiums and the European Championship title by August, Bergere scored a career-first Series gold at the Championship Finals Abu Dhabi and in doing so won a dramatic world title, beating Alex Yee and Hayden Wilde at the wire. In this year, Coninx took 3rd at the Paris Olympic test event, took 4th places at WTCS events in Yokohama and Cagliari and 5th in Abu Dhabi.
Race Results
1. Dorian Coninx FRA S 18:03 T1 1:15 B 52:56 T2 00:25 R 29:46 TOT 1:42:22 $18,000
2, Tim Hellwig GER S 18:09 T1 1:13 B 52:53 T2 00:25 R 29:44 TOT 1:42:22
3. Pierre Le Corre FRA S 18:00 T1 1:15 B 53:00 T2 00:24 R 29:45 TOT 1:42:22
4. Leo Bergere FRA S 18:05 T1 1:13 B 52:55 T2 00:22 R 29:55 TOT 1:42:28
5. Lasse Luhrs GER S 18:16 T1 1:16 B 52:41 T2 00:23 R 30:09 TOT 1:42:44
6. Csongor Lehmann HUN S 18:04 T1 1:14 B 52:57 T2 00:23 R 30:19 TOT 1:42:54
7. Matthew Hauser AUS S 17:57 T1 1:15 B 53:00 T2 00:21 R 30:31 TOT 1:43:04
8. Tyler Mislawchuk CAN S 18:15 T1 1:13 B 52:48 T2 00:22 R 30:32 TOT 1:43:09
9. Hayden Wilde NZL S 18:47 T1 1:09 B 53:02 T2 00:23 R 29:57 TOT 1:43:17
10. Lasse Nygaard Priester GER S 18:32 T1 1:13 B 53:11 T2 00:23 R 30:03 TOT 1:43:20
15. Matthew McElroy USA S 18:30 T1 1:14 B 53:16 T2 00:24 R 30:27 TOT 1:43:48
17. Kristian Blummenfelt NOR S 18:28 T1 1:18 B 53:12 T2 00:27 R 30:32 TOT 1:43:54
54. Morgan Pearson USA S 18:21 T1 1:10 B 52:47 T2 00:25 R 35:24 TOT 1:48:04
DNF Darr Smith USA
Series Final Top 5
1. Dorian Coninx FRA
2. Hayden Wilde NZL
3. Leo Bergere FRA
4. Vasco Vilaca POR
5. Alex Yee GBR
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