There is no longer any doubt: Matthew Hauser is totally ready for the Olympics, is perhaps in his best shape ever and certainly counts as one of the favorites for the Olympic race two weeks from now. He just showed that with an impressive victory at the WTCS Hamburg.
For sure, the distance of the WTCS Hamburg was only half of the Olympic triathlon in two weeks, but the way Hauser raced was nothing short of spectacular. A leading group of thirteen men emerged after the swim, and halfway through the bike leg, a chasing group of another fifteen athletes joined them. So, once in T2 there was a large leading group of nearly thirty athletes and the battle was still completely open.
However, this large leading group completely fell apart within the first few meters of the run and this was mainly due to Portuguese Vasco Vilaca, who maintained an almost insane pace and completely broke up the field. One competitor after the other was dropped and it wasn’t until the second lap, with two kilometers to go, that Matthew Hauser took over the initiative. The Australian did this so strongly that he immediately ran away from everyone and eventually raced to victory. He won WTCS Hamburg in 50:03, Vilaca finished second at six seconds and Pierre le Corre finished third at seven seconds.
