Mario Mola of Spain ran away from the field to win his third World Triathlon Series crown of the year while Crisanto Grajales of Mexico and Kristian Blummenfelt of Norway earned their first career WTS podiums at Yokohama.

After surviving a jammed-up 60-man lead pack on the swim and bike legs, Mola jetted into the lead out of T2 on his way to a race-best 29:26 10k run to finish in 1:46:27, with a 15 seconds margin of victory over Grajales and 18 seconds over 3rd-place finisher Blummenfelt.

“I am very happy with how things went today,” Mola told ITU media. “I think I managed to do a good swim, stay among the front of the pack and then on the run I felt great so I could not be happier.”

Mola, who already secured his Olympic start with Spain, now leads the season long points chase with 3,033, 274 points ahead of fellow Spaniard Fernando Alarza, 1,393 ahead of Grajales, and 1,608 ahead of Jonathan Brownlee of Great Britain.

With the absence of top contenders who have already secured their Olympic slots such as Javier Gomez, Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee, and Richard Murray, things were easier for Mola, which he acknowledged. “Now I will keep working in the next couple of months toward the Olympics, but of course with Javi racing it is going to be a different game.”

While Blummenfelt led off the bike and hung on close behind Mola for several laps of the run, Grajales overtook the Norwegian in the final lap of the run for the silver.

“It is my first podium in the WTS, so I am very happy for me, for my coach, for my family and my country,” Grajales told ITU media. “It was an amazing race, but I am waiting for Rio so now I will go home for two weeks to relax and train for the Olympic Games.”

As with the women’s race, much of the drama occurred further back in the search for Olympic spots.

With all three slots still open for the U.S. men, tensions were high. At the end of the day, the ITU reported that Joe Maloy finished 11th to take the first U.S. Olympic slot and Ben Kanute finished 17th to take the second.

According to the ITU, the U.S. men's Olympic qualifying criteria designated that the final slot went to the man with the most U.S.-designated Olympic qualifying points, and thus Gregory Billington, who did not finish this day, punched his ticket to Rio.

While Canada's two Olympic positions for the men are intact thanks in part to Tyler Mislawchuk's 10th place finish, which moved him ahead of fellow Canadians Andrew Yorke (18th at Yokohama) and Kyle Jones (DNF at Yokohama) on points, Canadian selectors have the final option of choosing their two favorites.

WTS Yokohama
Yokohama, Japan
May 14, 2016
S 1.5k / B 40k / R 10k

Results

Men

1. Mario Mola (ESP) 1:46:27
2. Crisanto Grajales (MEX) 1:46:42
3. Kristian Blummenfelt (NOR) 1:46:45
4. Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS) 1:46:50
5. Fernando Alarza (ESP) 1:46:54
6. Pierre Le Corre (FRA) 1:46:57
7. Henri Schoeman (RSA) 1:46:57
8. Dmitry Polyanskiy (RUS) 1:47:07
9. Ryan Sissons (NZL) 1:47:11
10. Tyler Mislawchuk (CAN) 1:47:15
11. Joe Maloy (USA) 1:47:16
17. Ben Kanute (USA) 1:47:52
35. Eric Lagerstrom (USA) 1:49:06
36. Kevin McDowell (USA) 1:49:08
45. Jarrod Shoemaker (USA) 1:51:13
DNF Gregory Billington (USA)