2026 Karlovy Vary World Triathlon Championship Series: Winning comebacks for Dorian Coninx and Georgia Taylor-Brown

France’s Dorian Coninx and Great Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown won the Karlovy Vary World Triathlon Championship Series (WTCS) races in the Czech Republic on Sunday. A winning return for both Olympic triathletes.

Dorian Coninx celebrated his return to the top on Sunday afternoon in the Czech Republic. The French triathlete joined a decisive breakaway on the bike before holding off Alex Yee over the 10km run to take gold ahead of the British Olympic champion. Tjebbe Kaindl claimed bronze, earning Austria its first-ever WTCS podium.

Rain was still falling on Lake Rolava when the men set off for this Olympic-distance race, with two laps of swimming ahead of them.

From the first buoy, Portugal’s Miguel Tiago Silva and American Chase McQueen quickly moved to the front, while athletes such as Britain’s Alex Yee and race number one, Brazil’s Miguel Hidalgo, began to lose ground.

At halfway, McQueen was leading. France’s Jules Rethoret and Hungary’s Mark Devay were also well placed, with Hidalgo 10 seconds back, while Alex Yee and Tjebbe Kaindl were already nearly 30 seconds adrift.

Italy’s Alessio Crociani was first out of the water, alongside France’s Dorian Coninx and Norway’s Vetle Thorn. Coninx was first onto his bike, with Britain’s Connor Bentley on his wheel. France’s Léo Bergère and Hungary’s Csongor Lehmann were 25 seconds back.

A bike course made for breakaways

Dorian Coninx and his teammate Leo Bergere, determined, fired up and returning from injury with big ambitions, opened a first gap in the lead group over the 40km bike course, on the second of seven laps. Mark Devay, representing Hungary, and Austria’s Tjebbe Kaindl then managed to bridge across. The quartet built a sizeable advantage over the rest of the field on a hilly bike course, featuring a 20% climb and made particularly treacherous by the rain, which caused numerous crashes.

Kaindl managed to break clear on the final bike lap and held his advantage for the first 2,500m of the run. Dorian Coninx then took over at the front, while Alex Yee was part of a small group charging through the field and clawing back huge chunks of time every kilometre. The Olympic champion made up 40 seconds of the 2:10 deficit he faced at the start of the final run, doing so on the first of four laps.

Alex Yee runs 29:16 for 10km

But that surge was likely to cost Yee over the closing stages. Coninx gradually settled into his effort at the front and held on to claim his second gold medal of the season, following his WTCS victory in Quiberon. He also made a spectacular leap up the world rankings, climbing to fourth ahead of next week’s grand final in Pontevedra, Spain.

Alex Yee eventually passed Kaindl to take second and claim his first podium since 2024. The Briton continues his preparations for the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics with an impressive 29:16 over the 10km run.

Dorian Coninx's second WTCS win of the season

Kaindl, meanwhile, made Austrian triathlon history with a courageous bronze-medal performance.

The Frenchmen Yanis Seguin, Léo Bergère and Jules Rethoret finished ninth, 23rd and 24th respectively.

MEN'S TOP 5

1 Dorian Coninx (France) 1:50:50

2 Alex Yee (Great Britain) 1:51:00

3 Tjebbe Kaindl (Austria) 1:51:07

4 Ricardo Batista (Portugal) 1:51:18

5 Tim Hellwig (Germany) 1:51:47

Full results

Georgia Taylor-Brown ends three-year WTCS drought

Three long years had passed since Britain’s Georgia Taylor-Brown last stood on a WTCS podium. In particularly difficult conditions, the Tokyo 2021 Olympic silver medallist reminded everyone of the full extent of her talent by claiming the seventh WTCS victory of her career in Karlovy Vary. On a cold, wet day in which more than a quarter of the field failed to finish, Taylor-Brown was simply outstanding across all three disciplines.

I’m quite emotional. Honestly, I didn’t think I could do it again. In a way, I’d resigned myself to simply battling with the women at the front and aiming for a top-six finish. So I’m really happy to have won today.
Georgia Taylor-Brown2026 winner

Last year’s winner, her compatriot Beth Potter, immediately took control from the opening swim lap, leading the way ahead of German world champion Lisa Tertsch, American Taylor Spivey and Italy’s Bianca Seregni, making her ambitions clear from the outset.

Potter and Tertsch needed a big result to keep their hopes of catching French Olympic champion Cassandre Beaugrand in the world title race alive. Only a win would keep them in contention.

Seregni took the lead on the second swim lap, with Potter, Tertsch and Spivey on her feet heading into the first transition.

Three riders break clear

A group of 16 athletes formed on the bike as they made their way towards the city centre, where Karlovy Vary’s famous climbs and cobbled sections awaited. The link-up was far from risk-free, however, with several athletes crashing on roads made slippery by the rain.

As soon as they reached the city centre, Spivey and Taylor-Brown blew the lead group apart on the first climb, reducing it from 16 athletes to just nine. The previous two women’s races in Karlovy Vary had featured two-rider breakaways. This year, there were three.

Alongside an especially aggressive Spivey and an unflappable Taylor-Brown, Austria’s Therese Feuersinger joined the breakaway, putting the other contenders under pressure. Spivey had tried the same move in 2025, only to be denied gold by Potter. This time, it was clear she had no intention of letting the Briton back into the race.

Potter, Tertsch, Luxembourg’s Jeanne Lehair, Hungary’s Márta Kropkó, Spain’s Marta Pintanel Raymundo and local hopeful Dana Prikrylova gave everything to limit the damage, but the gap between the two groups had grown beyond 2:30 by the end of the bike. It was a major blow to Potter and Tertsch’s world-ranking ambitions, and both now had to settle for targeting a possible bronze medal. Potter’s situation worsened further when a slow bike-to-run transition cost her contact with her rivals.

Experienced Taylor-Brown and Spivey lead the charge

At the front, Spivey began the run in first place. Taylor-Brown was only a few seconds back, however, and soon took over at the front. After claiming her first T100 Triathlon win in Spain earlier this year, Taylor-Brown rediscovered her killer instinct on the run and gradually turned the screw on Spivey. The American fought to stay in touch, but it was now clear that the momentum had shifted.

Behind them, Tertsch broke clear and appeared to be the only athlete still capable of challenging Feuersinger for bronze. Until Lehair suddenly came alongside her. With half a lap to go, Feuersinger’s lead had almost been cut in half, as Tertsch and Lehair closed in while keeping an eye on each other. Tertsch then launched another surge, dropping Lehair before reeling in Feuersinger and securing third place.

By then, the medals were decided and Taylor-Brown’s victory was beyond doubt. Already a silver medallist at the 2020 Karlovy Vary World Cup, behind Bermuda’s great Flora Duffy, Taylor-Brown claimed her first podium on the circuit in two years and her first win since Cagliari in May 2023. More than anything, this performance was a reminder of the qualities that once made her Duffy’s only genuine challenger for supremacy.

Spivey crossed the line 36 seconds back, with Tertsch taking third. Like Spivey’s silver, Tertsch’s bronze repeated her result from 2025. Lehair also matched last year’s finish in fourth, ahead of Feuersinger, who produced the best result of her career with fifth place.

It is worth noting that no French women lined up for this race.

WOMEN'S TOP 5

1 Georgia Taylor-Brown (Great Britain) 2:03:05

2 Taylor Spivey (United States) 2:03:41

3 Lisa Tertsch (Germany) 2:04:33

4 Jeanne Lehair (Luxembourg) 2:05:06

5 Therese Feuersinger (Austria) 2:05:21