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An Olympic gold medallist as part of Germany’s Mixed Relay-winning team at Paris 2024, Lisa Tertsch heads back to the blue carpet on Saturday, wearing the women’s number one at the Valencia World Cup.

In some of the form of her life, not to mention a winner already here back in 2022, Tertsch currently stands fourth in the Championship Series rankings and will look to use this sprint-distance hit-out as a guide to a potential world title challenge with two Championship Series races left of the season.

It’s a 750m, one lap swim, a fast and flat 19.2km bike along the harbour with one dead turn on each of the four laps, and a two-lap 5km run to the gold on what looks like being a calm, hot afternoon in Valencia. Tune in on World Triathlon YouTube, Facebook and of course on TriathlonLive.tv from 5pm CEST on Saturday 14 September.

Tertsch back on familiar ground

It was a little over two years ago that Lisa Tertsch started to string together the kind of results that saw her head into Paris 2024 as one of the favourites to win an Olympic medal.

Winning the 2022 Valencia World Cup gold was preceded by a first Series medal in Hamburg and silver in the Pontevedra World Cup, and the belief lit within the 25-year-old back then has been clear to see ever since. Always a tough competitor, with a serious world title bid still to mount in WTCS Weihai and the Championship Finals, surely nothing less than a medal again on Saturday will satisfy her here.

Spain’s Anna Godoy Contreras will certainly have something to say down the closing stages with the crowds behind her, and this would be the perfect occasion to score a first World Cup podium of her long career. Teammate Noelia Juan made a big impact on the Cup circuit last year and will be hungry to improve on her 4th place from 12 months ago.

Consistency the key for Koch

Expect Annika Koch to be a key player over the closing stages as she, like compatriot Tertsch, has been able to extend her consistency into podium power in recent outings both at Cup and Series level. Norway’s European Games champion Solveig Lovseth will want to be close enough to the leader out of the water to be able to deploy her bike prowess and set up a big finish, while Zuzana Michalickova (SVK) is likely to be among the pace-setters in the water along with British challenger Olivia Mathias.

Silver medallist here in 2022 and winner in the Huatulco heat in 2023, Valencia is the kind of course that could suit the rapid Mexican run specialist Anahi Alvarez Corral once again. And speaking of emerging talent from the Americas, last year’s Junior World Championship silver medallist Jimena Renata De La Peña Schott makes her first start in the USA uniform after choosing to switch from representing Mexico.

Fourth year of Valencia fireworks

It was back in 2020 that Valencia made its debut on the World Cup circuit, and packing the kind of line up that was sure to make a splash. Lisa Tertsch took bronze, beaten by the formidable pair of Nicola Spirig and Beth Potter, before returning two years later to win gold.

Last year it was Gwen Jorgensen storming to gold over the Olympic distance version of the course, when she left two other German talents in her wake; Nina Eim and Marlene Gomez Goggel.