Triathlon World Series – Jolien Vermeylen 9 at Super Sprint Worlds, Martin van Riel 12 and Jelle Geens 29

Vermeelen finished 17th in the qualifying series on Friday and had to submit to a repechage – which she won – to be among the 30 finalists. There, where each series eliminates the last 10 competitors, she passes the first (third) final, before qualifying on the wire, in tenth place, for the grand final to award the world title. Coming out of the water in seventh place after 300 metres, the Antwerp resident kept in touch on her bike, but fell a few seconds behind at the end of a 7.5 kilometer cycling course. During the 1.7 kilometer walk, however, she managed to catch up with the American sword Rappaport to finish ninth, 33 seconds behind France’s Cassandre Bogrand, the new world sprint champion, ahead of Britain’s Beth Potter and Germany’s Laura Lindemann.

Among men and at the same distances, New Zealander Hayden Wilde won the world title, two seconds ahead of Portugal’s Vasco Filaka and Britain’s Alex Yee. Martin Van Riel and Gilles Gens, who passed qualifying on Friday without a hitch, finished 12th and 29th, respectively. Van Riel had failed at the gates to the last final by finishing 12th, just two seconds out of the top ten, during Saturday’s second race. Jens, without good running legs, his preferred discipline, was eliminated after finishing 29th in his first final heat.