31 July 2024: After a postponement of the men’s triathlon, previously scheduled for 30 July, both the women’s and the men’s triathlon were held today. The women began at 8:00am as scheduled and the men started their event at 10:45am. The Olympic distance for the triathlon is a 1.5 kilometre swim in the River Seine, followed by 40 kilometres cycle around the streets of Paris, ending with a 10 kilometre run.
French favourite Cassandre Beaugrand won a tough women’s race to get the gold medal with a time of 1:54:55 (swim 22:32, bike 58:20, run 32:42) to beat Swiss Julie Derron in a silver medal time of 1:55:01 (swim 22:51, bike 57:57, run 32:51), and British Beth Potter who took the bronze medal in 1:55:10 (swim 22:25, bike 58:26, run 32:59).
In a close men’s triathlon race, six athletes clocked a finishing time of one hour and 43 minutes, separated by just seconds.
British Alex Yee took gold in 1:43:33 (swim 20:37, bike 51:57, run 29:47). New Zealander Hayden Wilde was 6 seconds behind, finishing in 1:43:39 (swim 21:13, bike 51:20, run 29:49). French triathlete Leo Bergere took the bronze medal in 1:43:43 (swim 20:37, bike 51:55, run 29:55).
Australian Matthew Hauser was the fastest out of the water and finished in 7th place overall with 1:44:17 (swim 20:14, bike 52:26, run 30:24) – just 44 seconds after the winner.
Kudos to triathlete Eloi Adjavon, Togo’s first ever Olympic competitor in triathlon. His triathlon dream began in May 2019 when he competed in his first triathlon, followed by his first international triathlon in 2021 at the Africa Cup. At the beginning of 2023, he raced in four qualifier races and scored zero points, dashing his hopes for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Then he came 7th in Mauritius and 5th in Egypt. He moved to Montpellier in France in late 2023 for the final eight months preparation and managed to secure a place in the Paris Olympic Games, without having raced in a World Cup event.
In the Olympic triathlon today, Eloi Adjavon was lapped by the faster cyclists in the cycle leg and officials asked him to remove himself from the event in a safe manner. He was not disqualified, nor was he unable to finish the event – it is a formality that the slower cyclists in the 55-person event bow out gracefully for safety reasons. Technical officials then removed his bike from the race. His results do not record a time and merely show the result as LAP. Well done Eloi for being an Olympian.
The Mixed Relay Triathlon will be held on Friday 2 August; pending favourable conditions, over a shorter course with each of the four team members (female-male-female-male tag-team) competing in a 300-metre swim, 6.8 kilometres cycle, and a 2-kilometre run.
MARTINA NICOLLS
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Martina Nicolls is an Australian author and international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, and foreign aid audits and evaluations. She lives in Paris.
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