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:France’s Leonie Periault won the second World Triathlon Championship Series gold of her career while American Morgan Pearson won his first in the men’s event in Yokohama on Saturday.
Periault, 29, will join 22-year-old Emma Lombardi at their home Games after claiming a stunning victory with a winning time of 01:52:28. She finished 36 seconds clear of the U.S.’s Taylor Knibb in second place and 40 seconds ahead of Lombardi, who took bronze.
Knibb had already booked her place with a top-eight finish at the Paris test event in August last year. American Taylor Spivey missed out on the Olympic spot by finishing fourth and team mate Kirsten Kasper finished fifth.
Rio Games and double world champion Gwen Jorgensen came in 15th, while the reigning Olympic champion, Flora Duffy, made a strong comeback after battling injury by securing seventh place.
Knibb set a challenging pace in the swim segment and Duffy made a significant comeback during the cycling leg, which saw Dutch Maya Kingma fall behind with a puncture at the end of lap four.
Once on the running course, Periault was unmatched. Lombardi managed to keep pace the longest but eventually fell back.
“I am very happy, I don’t understand the performance,” Periault told reporters. “It’s a good start for me after the winter, with my new coaches, I am happy, but I don’t understand the result!”
In the men’s triathlon, Pearson outran Australian duo Matthew Hauser and Luke Willian, finishing first with a time of 1:42:05. Willian’s bronze meant he will join Hauser at the Paris Games.
Hauser, who was second, had already qualified for the Olympics during his stand out 2023 season, peaking with a gold in Montreal after a silver in Yokohama.
Pearson, 30, had secured a spot at the Games with a top-eight at the Paris test event but winning a Worlds gold had been one of his goals after suffering from back injury last year.
“You can be in the shape of your life and something can still go wrong,” Pearson told reporters. “We’ve got to show up and give it our best and today my best was good enough to win.”
After securing the Olympic berth, Willian said, “This whole journey has been about taking opportunities and creating our own destiny. To do that today, with selection on the line, was pretty special.”
Olympic champion Kristian Blummenfelt finished down in 10th. Frenchman Leo Bergere, the 2022 world title winner, came in fourth after losing time in a bike crash. Canada’s Charles Paquet’s career-best fifth assured his Paris 2024 qualification.
France’s Dorian Coninx, who won his first world title in Pontevedra last year, was caught in a bike crash in the eighth lap and did not finish the race, along with 13 triathletes.
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