Three and a half years after her first and only WTS podium, 23-year-old Taylor Knibb mustered a surprise knockout punch to take the overall win at WTS Yokohama and earned the second Olympic slot for U.S. women.
Knibb and Maya Kingma of the Netherlands combined to make a smashing bike breakaway that gave the duo a 75 seconds lead on the field at T2. Kingma led Knibb by a few seconds beginning the run, then Knibb took charge to lead Kingma by 35 seconds at the 5k mark. While Summer Rappaport, who won the first U.S. Women’s Olympic slot in 2019, ran hard to a race-best 33:24 split that brought her past Kingma for the silver. Knibb held on for the win with a 35:09 split that brought her to the line in 1:54:27 with a 30 seconds margin over Rappaport and 38 seconds on third place finisher Kingma.
There was much drama just behind as Taylor Spivey of the U.S. was charging hard, aiming at a 3rd place finish that would give her the final U.S. Olympic slot. But Spivey’s third-best 33:56 run could not quite make up for her big deficit after the bike leg, and she fell 18 seconds short of Kingma and the final U.S. Olympic slot.
In a disappointing day that illustrated the difficulty in maintaining form over the long pandemic hiatus, star U.S. contender and 2019 World Champion Katie Zaferes could only manage a 22nd place finish.
“I wasn’t really thinking about Tokyo, I just wanted to get to that finish line,” an exuberant Knibb explained her strategy to ITU Media. “Maya [Kingma] was so good on the technical sections of the bike so I just wanted to pay attention to that and push on the sections where the group was slower. When I started the run, I was just like ‘I gotta run. I knew I just needed second and there wasn’t a lot of time for thinking!”
“This is a favorite place to race and I’m so happy to be back here and part of an American one-two,” said Rappaport. “I was focused on catching Taylor and Maya after only racing twice since the pandemic and today I felt I’d found my competitive edge again.”
“I was prepared to give it everything on the swim and first lap of the bike and hope there was a small group,” Kingma told ITU media. “Taylor escaped before I was planning to and she was so strong on the straights, and we pulled away. I was just trying to keep her wheel and I saw the gap growing. Two years ago, I was suffering on the bike and today everything felt like it was going well until the final lap and I just wanted to hang on to Summer.”
Race recap
Zaferes and Spivey anticipated an all-American duel for the two remaining U.S. Olympic slots – if they both landed on the podium – so they lined up together on the pontoon.
However, Helena Carvalho of Portugal and was soon joined by Rappaport at the front. As an omen of how her day would go, Zaferes trailed by 30 seconds at the final buoy and never found the her usual pace.
Kingma emerged from the water first in 19:33 followed closely by a pack including Amelie Kretz of Canada, Kirsten Kasper of the U.S., Yuko Takahashi of Japan and Sophie Coldwell of Great Britain.
Soon Kingma was caught by a pack of fifteen, with Zaferes a minute back. Within a lap, Knibb and Kingma made their big move, charging to as 10 seconds lead in the first kilometer, then 30 seconds halfway through the 40-kilometer ride. By 7 of 10 laps, Kingma and Knibb had a 75 seconds gap and by T2 they entered the transition after a 58:21 and 58:28 splits that gave them nearly a 2 minutes lead.
After 5km, Knibb had put 35 seconds over Kingma, while Rappaport zoomed into contention on her way to a race-best 33:28 run split. With 2.5 kilometers to go, Knibb had a 1 minute margin on Kingma, who held a 15 seconds cushion on Rappaport, who passed Kingma early on the final lap.
WTS Yokohama
Yokohama, Japan
May 15, 2021
1. Taylor Knibb (USA) S 19:35 T1 00:59 B 58:21 T2 00:25 R 35:09 TOT 1:54:27
2. Summer Rappaport (USA) S 19:29 T1 1:00 B 1:00:41 T2 00:26 R 33:24 TOT 1:54:57
3. Maya Kingma (NED) S 19:33 T1 00:54 B 58:28 T2 00:24 R 35:49 TOT 1:55:05
4. Taylor Spivey (USA) S 19:37 T1 00:58 B 1:00:30 T2 00:25 R 33:56 TOT
5. Julia Hauser (AUT) S 20:10 T1 00:59 B 59:58 T2 00:27 R 33:54 TOT 1:55:26
6. Sophie Coldwell (GBR) S 19:44 T1 00:57 B 1:00:25 T2 00:23 R 34:01 TOT 1:55:28
7. Non-Stanford (GBR) S 20:08 T1 00:58 B 59:58 T2 00:28 R 34:02 TOT 1:55:31
8. Miriam Casillas Garcia (ESP) S 20:09 T1 00:58 B 59:56 T2 00:24 R 34:07 TOT 1:55:32
9. Claire Michel (BEL) S 20:02 T1 00:59 B 1:00:07 T2 00:25 R 34:09 TOT 1:55:39
10. Cassandre Beaugrand (FRA) S 19:46 T1 00:58 B 1:00:19 T1 00:37 R 34:04 TOT 1:55:42
14. Kirsten Kasper (USA) S 19:36 T1 1:04 B 1:00:22 t2 00:25 r 354:01 tot 1:56:25
22. Katie Zaferes (USA) S 19:59 T1 1:00 B 1:00:22 T1 00:25 R 35:28 TOT 1:57:12
45. Renee Tomlin (USA) S 20:38 T1 1:00 B 1:04:09 T2 00:26 R 37:09 TOT 2:03:20
DNF Tamara Gorman (USA)
