There was drama aplenty during – and after – Cassandre Beaugrand became the first French woman to be crowned world triathlon champion.
She added the WTCS title for 2024 to her Olympic gold medal from Paris with a quite astonishing performance in Torremolinos on Saturday.
She gave herself a mountain to climb when going badly off course early in the swim, which dropped her back to 48th and last position. But she worked her way back into contention brilliantly, so much so that she was still able to make the front pack on the bike before powering away from her title rivals, Britain’s Beth Potter and France’s Emma Lombardi, on the run.
There was still one final twist however with the British Triathlon Federation making an appeal.
The result stood however – and there was absolutely no doubt at all that the best athlete both on the day and over the course of the whole season – won the race.
‘I made a mistake’
Talking afterwards to World Triathlon and explaining what happened during the early part of the swim, Beaugrand said: “I made a mistake, and realised it was a big one because I lost so much time.
“I actually get seasick and the waves were quite high so I couldn’t see the buoys, then I realised I was on my own. I was already panicking, thinking ‘what am I doing’. I thought I was swimming strong but [it was] to the wrong buoy.
“I had no idea where I was in the first lap. I just knew I was in a very, very, very tricky position on the first buoy, obviously, with my mistake. So I just tried to find some solution to come back to the front.
I was thinking I’m not letting this title go away from me right now so I had to push hard on the second lap to catch up.
“I was fighting to the end and thinking of last year when I missed out being World Champion so I’m really proud of this.
“I just wanted this world title so badly and have dreamed about it for so many years. Last year I was very disappointed finishing second. Nobody can take this away from me now. I was training hard and fighting all year for this one.”
British Triathlon explain why they appealed
Speaking in the video that’s embedded at the bottom of this article, Beaugrand then referenced the nervous time before the result was confirmed, admitting: “I mean, I was going through so many emotions after the race”.
And while the appeal put the celebrations on hold, a spokesperson for British Triathlon told us why they felt it was the right course of action: “The appeal was lodged on the grounds of how the situation was handled and not the actions of Cassandre Beaugrand. The only way to question how the events of the swim unfolded was to lodge an appeal.”
