Emy Legault and Tyler Mislawchuk win Triathlon World Cup silvers in Huatulco

Team Canada stood out at the Triathlon World Cup in Huatulco, Mexico with two silver medals from Emy Legault and Tyler Mislawchuk.

In the women’s event, Legault ran her way to her first career World Cup podium on Saturday evening. In this sprint-format race, the 26-year-old Quebecer clocked a total time of one hour and 13 seconds to finish second behind Germany’s Annika Koch (1:00:01). After a sprint finish with Legault to determine the final two spots on the women’s podium, Italy’s Bianca Seregni (1:00:15) was forced to settle for the bronze medal.

Annika Koch is the 2022 World Triathlon Cup Huatulco Champion! She had the legs in the heat to extend her narrow lead out of T2 and win a first-ever World Cup gold, Emy Legault holding off the charge of Bianca Seregni to take silver and her first WC podium!#Triathlon pic.twitter.com/7FvG85xzT1

— World Triathlon (@worldtriathlon) June 19, 2022

“This feels quite amazing,” beamed Canada’s top-ranked women’s triathlete.

“At first I couldn’t believe it but it is starting to soak in now so I’m pretty happy.”

Legault was well placed in the water until things got rough with the 55-woman field fighting for position around the first buoy. Legault continued to battle into the top-10, exiting the 750m swim just 30 seconds behind the lead. She picked up four spots on the field while charging out of first transition and onto the four-lap bike course. Conditions were hot and humid, with temperatures approaching 30 degrees Celsius.

The race was very tight at the end of the cycling portion with 28 athletes within eight seconds of the lead. The race was going to be played on the 5 km of running where Legault stood out. The Canadian and German went stride-for-stride in the first half of the 5km run. Legault was out front heading onto the second lap, but Koch pulled away in the final lap, leaving the Canadian and Italian to battle it out for silver and bronze. Racing shoulder-to-shoulder, Legault found the power to overtake Seregni in the last metres of the race to climb the second step of the podium.

Team spirit on the line as Dominika Jamnicky and Brittany Warly cheer for Emy Legault who is awarded silver in Huatulco and steps onto first-ever World #Triathlon Cup podium! #HuatulcoWC @TriathlonCanada @worldtriathlon @TeamCanada pic.twitter.com/d9OunGJuer

— TriathlonLIVE (@triathlonlive) June 19, 2022

The Canadian athlete finished 14th last year at the same venue. On Saturday, Canadians Dominika Jamnicky placed 11th at 1:00:55 and Kira Bupta-Baltazar finished 39th with a time of 1:04:32. She was second in the swim but experienced a crash while on the bike.

On the men’s side, the two-time defending champion Tyler Mislawchuk was trying to match this feat once again in Huatulco, but came up short finishing in second place.

The faces say it all! A titanic battle down the #HuatulcoWC blue carpet ends with a debut victory for Genis Grau who had just enough in the tank to deny Tyler Mislawchuk a third straight gold, Miguel Hidalgo with another dynamite display for bronze!#Triathlon pic.twitter.com/QyWI64AuoE

— World Triathlon (@worldtriathlon) June 19, 2022

READ: Tyler Mislawchuk wins Triathlon World Cup in Huatulco

It was a battle down to the blue carpet with the top three athletes finishing within three seconds on one another. In a thrilling end, Spain’s Genis Grau resisted the pressure of his competitors and took his debut victory with a time of 53 minutes and 47 seconds. Mislawchuk crossed the finish line a second later (00:53.48) to capture silver and his third straight World Cup podium in Huatulco. Brazil’s Miguel Hidalgo (00:53.50) followed the Canadian in third.

From June 24-28 the Canadians are heading to the World Sprint and Relay Triathlon Championships in Montreal.