Published August 29, 2026 05:33PM
As he did in the last Olympic-distance race in Alghero, Matt Hauser (AUS) crashed on the bike after avoiding a grate in the road and losing control of his front wheel. Despite still making it to the run in a good position, he couldn’t go with the rapid-running Max Studer (SUI) – last year’s winner who was racing his first top-flight race of the year.
Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA), as she has done three times already this season, remained a class above on the run despite being pushed all the way by 2023 and 2025 world champions Beth Potter (GBR) and Lisa Tertsch (GER). Originally not focused on the WTCS series this year, she now sits in pole position for the world title.
With the Pontevedra Grand Final looming in just four weeks’ time, Weihai was an opportunity for those willing to embrace the long travel to secure some all-important points, with Karlovy Vary the only other race remaining.
Many of the top contenders opted to skip this one to focus on Karlovy Vary, especially on the men’s side, with Vasco Vilaca (POR) and Miguel Hidalgo (BRA) two of the biggest names missing.
To make things more unpredictable, the weather was windy and rainy at the start of the morning, creating tougher conditions for the two-lap swim and the eight-lap bike.
For the men’s race, it was a long string of athletes with almost everyone still in touch after the swim; Zalán Hóbor (HUN) led the way, followed closely by Chase McQueen (USA), with Hauser just behind. With a long 250m stretch through transition, some of the fastest runners were able to find their way back toward the front early on.
Onto the wet bike, and the groups quickly came together, with conditions hardly encouraging any risk-taking around the corners or ambitious breakaway efforts.
That made it seem like an uneventful bike lay ahead. However, a crash on lap four that wasn’t caught on camera for the favorite Hauser quickly threw that out the window. Impressively, he somehow managed to catch back onto the front group.
Great teamwork and sportsmanship followed, with fellow Australian Callum McClusky dropping back to give Hauser a water bottle, and even Canadian Tyler Mislawchuk offering him one, despite Hauser being the heavy favorite for the win. That meant Hauser was hydrated and still in a great position heading into the run, albeit with some bruises and holes in his trisuit.
Before this race, only a handful of athletes had managed a sub-30-minute 10km split in 2026, but on this day, it would be necessary to make the podium.
Hauser was in and out of transition in a flash, appearing as if the crash was behind him. However, there was an army of chasers behind, willing to do anything to dethrone the series leader.
Among those hungry runners was Canadian Olympian Tyler Mislawchuk, who, despite being a fair way back out of transition, remarkably bridged up quickly on the first lap before putting the hammer down on the second. He broke the elastic for all but two other runners, Max Studer and David Cantero (ESP) – Hauser was left behind.
All three would push the pace at times, and it looked to be neck and neck until the finish before Cantero slipped on some tiles while rounding a corner and hit the deck. Amazingly, like Hauser, he rallied back and was soon alongside Mislawchuk – but Studer was beginning to utilize his long stride and edge away.
Studer had been training out of China for the last few weeks in the lead-up with his coach, Brett Sutton, who coaches a host of other top-flight athletes there alongside his role as the coach of the Chinese federation, including Julie Derron (SUI) and Alanis Siffert (SUI).
They would certainly all have enjoyed watching him return to full form. After missing many of the top-level races this year, Studer returned to win again in Weihai for the second year in a row, taking the tape with time to spare over Cantero, who surely would have been rueing the slip.
Mislawchuk, in what has already been a busy season of racing, picked up a well-earned third while Hauser had to settle for tenth, citing a rush of adrenaline after the crash and just not having it on the day for his uncharacteristic result. This leaves the series wide open ahead of the grand final, with Vilaca now looking more likely to cause an upset.
WTCS Weihai 2026 Men’s Results
PositionAthleteSwimBikeRunOverall1Max Studer18:2551:5029:241:41:082David Cantero Del Campo18:3251:4929:291:41:183Tyler Mislawchuk18:2651:5329:351:41:25
The big question mark of the women’s swim was how Beaugrand would fare after an uncharacteristically poor swim by her standards in London left her against the ropes. Even though she ultimately won that race, it opened up opportunities for other athletes to try to put her under pressure and crack what has otherwise looked like almost unbeatable race form this season.
Unfortunately for the others, that wasn’t the case here, as Beaugrand had a perfect start, leading the way early in the swim and exiting the water in third with a healthy gap back to rivals Tertsch and Potter in the next group behind.
Gwen Jorgensen (USA) was one of the fastest through transition, making the most of the long run to the bike and positioning herself in the chase pack behind the small front group.
Similar to the men’s race, it didn’t take long before the packs came together, and from there it became a game of focus as they jostled for position, tried to save energy, thinking ahead to the all-important 10km run. Japanese athlete Himeka Sato (JPN) was one of the athletes to go down on the wet course, but the rest of the top contenders came into transition unscathed.
A good transition from last year’s series champion Tertsch saw her perfectly positioned early on, with Beaugrand a few places behind.
Jorgensen was positioned in 20th getting off the bike, leaving her with significant work to do if she wanted to get to the front.
Potter, having won the race the year before, set the pace early on, and by lap two the rest of the field was quickly dispatched, leaving a long three-way run showdown – just as in the men’s race – between the three champions.
Three became two as Tertsch opted to slow for an aid station and wasn’t able to stick with the two up ahead. Jorgensen, meanwhile, was amazingly the best of the rest, overtaking 15 athletes since transition to move into fifth place.
Shortly after leaving Tertsch behind, Beaugrand turned the screw with around a kilometer to go and opened up the necessary gap to go four for four in the WTCS. In doing so, she became one of very few women to ever achieve a perfect score heading into the grand final and further cemented her status as unquestionably the best short-course triathlete in the world right now.
Potter’s second place might sting, but it put her firmly in the hunt with two races to go, as Tertsch fell another 18 seconds back to finish third. The big shock of the day was Anqi Huang (CHN), who finished fourth in front of a jubilant home crowd ahead of Jorgensen.
Enjoying the process of deciding after every race what comes next, Cassandre Beaugrand’s unconventional 2026 approach has now resulted in four perfect WTCS races alongside her running accomplishments. She will continue in that vein heading to the Supertri Jersey Pro Series Final next weekend, where she takes on the likes of Potter once more in the unique Supertri format.
An even stronger lineup of athletes is now set for WTCS Karlovy Vary on September 13, before the Grand Final brings everyone together for all the glory in Pontevedra on September 23.
WTCS Weihai 2026 Women’s Results
PositionAthleteSwimBikeRunOverall1Cassandre Beaugrand19:1456:1432:121:49:202Beth Potter19:4855:4032:171:49:263Lisa Tertsch19:3855:5132:401:49:44