Great Britain’s Kate Waugh and Léo Bergere of France won the 2023 Super League Triathlon Championship Series titles in NEOM, Saudi Arabia.
NEOM in Saudi Arabia, hosted the 2023 Super League Triathlon Championship Series Grand Final on October 21. The race format for elite athletes was the three-stage Enduro, requiring a mix of speed and stamina.
The three back-to-back stages tasked athletes with a 300m swim in the warm and buoyant Red Sea followed by a single lap 4km bike leg on a mix of gravel and asphalt surfaces and a final 1.6km run. All would take place in the 30°C desert heat and windswept conditions of NEOM.
The women’s race saw Waugh, 24, finishing ahead of Luxembourg’s Jeanne Lehair and France’s Emma Lombardi on the day and in the series after multi-stage triathlon racing in the desert.
The four-date series victory (following races in London, Toulouse, Malibu and now NEOM) saw Waugh add the 2023 Super League Championship Series to her Under-23 and Mixed Relay world titles from 2022. She finished level on points with Jeanne Lehair but, with the final result counting in the event of a tie, took the title.
The men’s race saw Léo Bergere break free from defending champion New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde on the final run leg to take both the series and race win. The duo, both vying for the overall title of the four-date 2023 series, were inseparable on the first eight disciplines of the day before Bergere surged to victory on the final 1.6km of the day and series.
www.superleaguetriathlon.com
