Daisy Davies (GBR) and Lukas Kocar (CZE) won the 2022 XTERRA Short Track series finale on a picture-perfect blue sky day at Lake Molveno in Trentino, Italy this afternoon with winning times of 38:28 and 33:15, respectively.
At the same time, Loanne Duvoisin (SUI) and Maxim Chane (FRA) won the first-ever XTERRA Short Track series titles following their strong performances in today’s race.
It’s the third career XTERRA Short Track win for Kocar, his second this year, and the first for Davies.
The adrenaline-charged, fast-paced race combined a two-lap swim (200m per lap) with a four-lap mountain bike (1.8k per lap), and two-loop run (1.2K per lap). There was €10.000 in prize money at stake for the race, and €20.000 on the line for the top 10 men and women in the series.
In the women’s race, Daisy Davies, a 20-year-old phenom from Sherborne, stole the show from the start. She posted the fastest swim (6:17) by more than 40-seconds ahead of Amanda Felder (USA) and Sandra Mairhofer (ITA) which gave her a lead she would never relinquish.
“I felt really good today, and just played to my strengths,” she said. “I had a good swim and managed to hold on from there to the end. I don’t come from a swimming background, but I race in the World Triathlon Series and the swim standard is pretty high so you can’t be slacking about.”
Davies also had the third best bike and run splits to take the win with the same 40-second lead she had out of T1, proving she was strong all around.
“I really enjoyed the course and felt comfortable I’d be able to get around it in one piece, but I was aware of the strong runners behind me so pushed the whole way,” she said.
In the chase for second, Duvoisin charged past Mairhofer in the first lap of the run on her way to recording the fastest run split of the day. She came into the race needing to finish in second-place or better and ahead of Alizee Paties (FRA) to win the Series and that’s exactly what she did.
“I knew I had to be in front of Alizee to win the series, so that gave me plenty of motivation,” she said. “Yesterday I had some mechanical problems on the bike like a lot of athletes, and I wasn’t at my best, so it was good to show something strong today in front of my family and friends. Short Track racing is so fun and good for XTERRA to show our sport on TV and in front of all the spectators.”
Mairhofer, who posted the best bike split of the day, came in third just two seconds ahead of Paties in fourth, and Lesley Paterson (GBR) in fifth.
“It was painful today, my legs were hurting from start to finish, but it was so fun,” said Mairhofer. “It was tight racing, but I didn’t think Daisy could put so much time on us in just 400 meters, then push so hard on the bike after yesterday, but she had good legs and did a wonderful race.”
Women’s Results Place - Name, NAT (Final Time) Points 1 - Daisy Davies, GBR (38:28) 100 2 - Loanne Duvoisin, SUI (39:08) 90 3 - Sandra Mairhofer, ITA (39:45) 82 4 - Alizee Paties, FRA (39:47) 75 5 - Lesley Paterson, GBR (39:50) 69 6 - Solenne Billouin, FRA (40:16) 63 7 - Marta Menditto, ITA (40:31) 58 8 - Carina Wasle, AUT (41:08) 53 9 - Beatriz Ferreira, POR (41:34) 49 10 - Kate Bramley, AUS (42:04) 45
