With a thrilling sprint to the line Germany’s Laura Lindemann took her first WTCS title, thrilling the huge Hamburg crowd with a hometown win.
American Summer Rappaport led the women out of the water after the 750 m swim in 9:12 with Olivia Mathias (GBR), Laura Lindemann (GER) and Kirsten Kasper (USA) close behind, but there were 22 women within 22 seconds of the lead as the women hit T1.
Out on the bike the group whittled down to 18 fairly quickly, with Mathias, Lindemann, Kasper maintaining their spots in the lead group along with Germans Anabel Knoll, Marlene Gomez-Islinger and Lena Meissner, along with Aussie natalie Van Coevorden. That lead group was able to open up a gap of 40 seconds on the chase group.
Into T2 it was Knoll who led the way with Mathias and Kasper also in great positions as they grabbed their running shoes. Lindemann, though, was the big mover through the early part of the run, but was quickly joined at the front by New Zealand’s Nicole Van Der Kaay, Rappaport and Hungary’s Zsanett Bragmayer. Those four would open up a gap of eight seconds on the next group that included, amongst others Italy’s Alice Betto, Gomez-Islinger, Mathias and Kasper.
Rappaport, Van Der Kaay and Lindemann eventually dropped Bragmayer, leaving those three to decide the medals. Lindemann would patiently wait for her moment and began a huge sprint within a few hundred meters of the blue carpet, winning in front the German crowd thanks to an incredible sprint that got her to the line for the win in 58:17, her first WTCS win, made even more special since she did it in Germany. Van Der Kaay (58:21) would get ahead of Rappaport(58:26) to take silver and her first World Triathlon podium. Bragmayer (58:34) would hang in for fourth with Great Britain’s Sian Rainsley (58:36) rounding out the top five.
“It was a perfect race for me – the swim was good, the bike was good and the run felt so good,” Lindemann said after her huge win.
