Jolien Vermeylen wins Toronto triathlon
Beating the Olympic champion, the Belgian athlete won the first round of the Supertri challenge.
After becoming European champion in the "sprint" event (750 m swim, 20 km bike, 5 km run) in Melilla, Spain, Jolien Vermeylen tackled the first leg of the new Supertri challenge, contested in a new format consisting of three consecutive rounds of a 300 m swim, 4 km bike and 1.6 km run, with just six minutes' rest between each mini-triathlon.
The athlete from Averbode (Flemish Brabant) snatched a narrow victory, decided by a margin of just two seconds over France's Léonie Périault. Another French athlete, Cassandre Beaugrand (a gold medallist in the women's triathlon at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games) rounded off the prestigious podium.
It's encouraging to see Belgium's triathletes continuing to make a name for themselves in the sport all over the world. As a reminder, Marten Van Riel and Jelle Geens are currently in the top two spots in the T100 series, a prestigious challenge whose heats are contested over 100 km (2 km swim, 80 km bike, 18 km run), and have already qualified for the Ironman World Championships (14 September, in Nice) and Half Ironman World Championships (9 November, in Marbella).
Congratulations to this Belgian athlete on her success in one of the world's most demanding sports!