Emy Legault, Amélie Kretz and Alexis Lepage were in action this weekend at the World Cup triathlon stopover in Lisbon. The program included an Olympic-qualifying mixed relay on Friday, followed by individual events over the Olympic distance on Saturday and Sunday.

Friday – mixed team relay

Teams finishing on the podium in this event, in which the four relay runners in each team had to complete a 300-meter swim, a 7-kilometer bike and a 1.6-kilometer run, secured their place at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Following Triathlon Canada’s announcement of a revamped relay, the first to be in action in the Portuguese capital was Tri-O-Lacs athlete Emy Legault. Positioned as the first relay runner, the Quebecer was a little behind the front runners at the end of T1, but she managed to catch up on the bike and rejoin the leading pack. Although she lost a little time to the favourites on the run, Canada was still in the running when she handed over to Aiden Longcroft-Harris. Unfortunately, Longcroft-Harris was then caught up in a bike crash just before the transition zone, dashing any hopes of Olympic qualification for the Canadian relay. Despite this, the Rigaud athlete was positive: “It was a first experience, as I’d never taken part in a relay race at this level. I’m still lacking in the running, but I’m happy with my position in the swimming and cycling. The team worked really hard to get a good result and I’m really happy to have started alongside them”.

Belgium finished in first place ahead of Italy and Switzerland, securing their tickets for Tokyo this summer.

Saturday – men’s individual event

Alexis Lepage was the only Quebecer involved in this Lusitanian leg, which marked his return to competition after more than a year. As he told us on Thursday evening during our Facebook live, his mandate was to help Tyler Mislawchuk during the swim and the bike, to keep him in a good position and to lead him towards a good performance. Despite an excellent swim that saw him emerge among the top fifteen athletes in the water, the Gatineau native had no legs on the bike and decided not to continue his effort, as he was no longer in a position to do what was required of him. Tyler Mislawchuk was slowed down by a puncture on the bike and finally came in ^51st, while Matthew Sharpe, competing with Alexis Lepage for a ticket to Tokyo, decided to withdraw just before the run.
“The chances of me making the Olympic team have pretty much diminished today (Saturday),” admitted Alexis Lepage. You have to be humble enough to recognize that Matt Sharpe did a good job in the last few races and that I wasn’t up to the task”.

Following his victory at the Yokohama WTCS the week before, Norway’s Kristian Blummenfelt was once again the fastest, posting a time of 1 h 42 min 33 sec. He beat Switzerland’s Max Studer (+8 seconds) and Spain’s Genis Grau (+22 seconds).

Sunday – women’s individual event

Two Quebecers were on the starting line for this event. Emy Legault, but also Amélie Kretz, who had to perform to keep her chances of Olympic qualification alive after the relay failed to qualify. With a magnificent sixth place, the contract was fulfilled, enabling her to leap twelve rungs up the world Olympic qualification rankings. After a good swim in very difficult conditions, she just missed the front of the pack, but found herself in a chase group with double Olympic medallist Nicola Spirig, a formidable athlete on the bike. Good collaboration enabled the group to rejoin the leading pack before the second transition. Despite a cramp in T2, the Ste-Thérèse athlete accelerated in the first two kilometers of the run to close the gap and flirted with third place for around five kilometers. “I’d burned too much gas and didn’t have the legs to respond. I ended up in fourth place and was caught on the fourth lap. I hung on as best I could in the last 500 metres, but I didn’t have the legs to go with the others,” Amélie Kretz told Sportcom. She finally completed the course in 2 hours 9 seconds (+1 minute 4 seconds).
On the podium, Switzerland’s Nicola Spirig finished ahead of Ireland’s Carolyn Hayes (+12 seconds) and American Kirsten Kasper (+34 seconds). Emy Legault came 37th.
Amélie Kretz is now ^75th in the Olympic qualification rankings, putting Canada in a strong position to secure a second ticket to the 55-strong women’s event in Tokyo.

“It’s motivating and gives me confidence to see that there’s still room for better results. It’s a step in the right direction to be able to qualify for a second Canadian place for women. It’s all positive today,” said Amélie Kretz.

Upcoming competitions for Team Québec athletes

Emy Legault will be back in action next week. This will also be the case for Charles Paquet and Jérémie Briand , who will all be at the start of the World Cup in Arzachena, Italy, a WTCS-style event. After that, Amélie Kretz will be at the start of the WTSC in Leeds, a very important step in her Olympic quest. Then it’s off to Mexico for the Huatulco World Cup, where she’ll be joined by Emy Legault ,Alexis Lepage, Charles Paquet and Jérémie Briand . These competitions can be followed on the TriathlonLIVE platform.