We Noticed: Free WTCS Alghero Coverage, Enhanced Games Flop and More

We previewed the big World Triathlon Championship Series Race taking place in Sardinia this weekend – WTCS Alghero – and now we get to offer our readers the chance to watch the race for free. World Triathlon is offering free access to TriathlonLive.tv for the weekend so you can take in the race, which is the first WTCS race of the 2028 Olympic qualification period.

The women’s race goes at 11:00 am local time (5 am EST) and the men start at 14:00 local time (8 am EST).

Here’s how to access the free coverage:

1. Head to TriathlonLive using this link: https://www.triathlonlive.tv/paywalls?context=LZsgS2Dedeac~JTm0Vr4UN~0xnVdKGtB
2. Click watch now on the Alghero Race Pass option 
3. Sign in or SIgn up for TriathlonLive – don’t worry it’s free! 

You will be redirected to the check out page. Enter code MYRACEPASS and ‘complete order’. No payment, no credit card details required.

Here are a few more facts about this weekend’s race:

• There are nine WTCS winners competing: Alex Yee, Matt Hauser, Hayden Wilde, Miguel Hidalsgo, Vasco Vilaça, Dorian Conninx, Cassandre Beaugrand, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Beth Potter.
• Alex Yee won the race in Sardinia (WTCS Cagliari) three years in a row from 2022 to 2024. Georgia Taylor-Brown won two years in a row (2022 and 2023), while Cassandre Beaugrand took the 2024 and 2025 victories. The men’s defending champion is Miguel Hidalgo.
• This was one of the few times Matt Hauser didn’t win a draft-legal race when he competed last year – he competed in seven WTCS races and missed the podium once. His four wins (Yokohama, Hamburg, French Riviera and the Wollongong Grand Final) were a record. He finished second in Abu Dhabi and Alghero and eighth in Karlovy Vary.
• There are 55 men racing and 44 women.
• It’s an Olympic distance race, although the bike is a touch long at 40.5 km. (1.5 km swim and 10 km run.)
• The winners take home US$19,000, with prize money dropping to $3,000 for 10th. Prize money is paid out to 30th spot.

Enhanced Games Underwhelms

We wrote about the Enhanced Games earlier this year (see below), and last weekend’s racing didn’t exactly produce the results organizers had hoped for.

In fact things went so badly that investors in Enhanced Group Inc., the publicly traded parent company of the Enhanced Games, “watched its stock fall by almost half,” according to Marathon Handbook.

The event was supposed to be a marketing avenue for Enhanced Group Inc., which is set to become an online pharmacy for testosterone and other performance drugs, along with various supplements. According to SwimSam, the company saw almost $800 million in market value disappear once the New York Stock Exchange opened on Tuesday.

The Enhanced Games took place last Sunday night on the Las Vegas Strip. The world records organizers had promised never materialized – the only record set was by Greek swimmer Kristian Gkolomeev, who swam 20.81 for 50 m using a banned swim suit and while doping. Three other events were won by athletes who said they were racing without taking any illegal drugs.

As USA Today put it, the Enhanced Games “failed to live up to their own hype” and also showed “that doping can only help athletes who are already elite rather than make a ‘pretty good’ swimmer an Olympic medalist.”

Which probably isn’t the marketing message Enhanced Group Inc. was hoping for.

IRONMAN 70.3 Happy Valley Start List Announced

The field for the next IRONMAN Pro Series race in North America has been announced. The IRONMAN 70.3 North American Championship will take place in Happy Valley, Pennsylvania on June 14. There will be US$75,000 up for grabs at the race.

Defending women’s champion Lydia Russell will wear race #1 in Happy Valley, but she’ll have some stiff competition, including Americans Jackie Hering, who hasn’t finished a race outside the top five this year and won IRONMAN 70.3 Dallas in March, Danielle Lewis and Grace Alexander (who has been on a roll with wins at IRONMAN 70.3 Gulf Coast and Chattanooga). Add to that mix Canadians Paula Findlay, who bounced back from a DNF in Oceanside to take second in Chattanooga, and Tamara Jewett, who started her season off with a win at Challenge Wanaka and took third at 70.3 Geelong. The down under crew will be represented by Kiwi Hannah Berry, who was second at IRONMAN New Zealand, and Australia’s Grace Thek, who finished one spot ahead of Jewett in Geelong. Here’s the full women’s start list:

Sam Long, who bounced back from a tough day at IRONMAN Texas with a win at IRONMAN 70.3 Gulf Coast and a fourth at 70.3 Chattanooga, will certainly be one of the pre-race favourites, but there are more than a few big names who are legitimate contenders for the win, or at least a podium finish. Long’s countrymen Matt Hanson (currently second in the IRONMAN Pro Series standings), Ben Kanute, Trevor Foley (this year’s IRONMAN New Zealand winner) and Matthew Marquardt (this year’s IRONMAN South Africa winner) are more than likely to be in the mix, while Aussie Sam Appleton is another to watch. One name that is well down the start list but could be a factor is Morgan Pearson, who won T100 Dubai last year and took second at the T100 Final in Qatar, and another short-course specialist, Matthew McGoey, who just took third at Supertri Austin.

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