SLT Champions Show Their Quality

In 2018/19, Super League Triathlon (SLT) brought a new level of performance to the world of endurance sport. We saw the very best triathletes pushed further than ever before and crowned two worthy champions in the process. Now, as 2019 rolls on, we have started to see the game-changing impact of SLT down through the rest of the sport. This weekend, our two reigning champions Katie Zaferes and Vincent Luis took their blistering form to the streets of Yokohama, both smashing it to win the elite races held over the standard distance.

Katie has used the wave of confidence she rode through the Super League series to carry her deep into the season – so far this year she has been dominating all comers and sits undefeated at the very top of the ITU rankings. For Vincent, this was his first victory in the ITU series for this year, but his consistency throughout also leaves him leading the rankings.

It wasn’t just the top of the podium that saw our athletes make an appearance as the men’s and women’s results sheets both had four Super League athletes in the top ten. South Africa’s Henri Schoeman, who came second in the SLT Championship, pushed Vincent right until the end but just lost out in a close sprint for the line. Further down the finishing order we saw Britain’s Alex Yee in fifth and Belgium’s Marten Van Riel in eighth. The women’s podium was an American roll of honour as Summer Rappaport took second ahead of Taylor Spivey in third with Japan’s Yuko Takahashi just off the podium in fourth. All of these athletes raced at the front across the SLT season showing that the super-sprint format is raising the bar, not only at sprint distance racing, but at the Olympic distance too.

The athletes will now be gearing up for the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics Test Event in August, and the two reigning Super League champions are in a prime position to lay down a marker.

Will we see a triple crown for both our women’s and men’s champions? Will we see them attempting to hold the Super League title, the ITU World Triathlon Championship, and an Olympic Gold Medal in the same year?

It is becoming more and more apparent that form can be held for longer than ever before, that SLT is bringing a new style of racing to all distances in triathlon, and that boundaries we long thought were established are being broken down.