Reigning Olympic and World Champion Cassandre Beaugrand has set a new French record for the 5km distance on the road.
The 27-year-old, who enjoyed the perfect 2024 with that triumph on home roads in Paris and then a first WTCS title, had decided to take part in Sunday’s Monaco 5km rather than travel to Abu Dhabi next week for the first round of the World Triathlon Championship Series.
“If I can have fun with running races, that can be a cool intermediate objective. Testing myself with the athletes,” she told L’Equipe beforehand and the move paid off in spectacular style.
2:49 final kilometre
The French record stood at 14 minutes and 58 seconds, meaning that Beaugrand would need an overall average pace of under 3min/km to be in with a chance of bettering it.
And on the pristine roads of the Principality she paced it to perfection, with a negative split.
She opened with a 3:01 first kilometre, did exactly the same time for the second and then a 3:03 for the third kilometre, meaning she was at 9:05 at that point and in need of something special for the record.
And that’s what happened as she dipped under the 3min/km mark for kilometre four with a 2:59 and then produced a sensational 2:49 final kilometre to stop the clock in 14:53 and take an impressive five seconds off the previous mark.
That all saw her finish as the fourth-placed woman, behind Likina Amebaw of Ethiopia who won in 14:33.
Beaugrand back to tri soon
Unlike men’s Olympic champion Alex Yee, who is taking an extended break from triathlon to focus on running, Beaugrand will shortly return to the swim, bike and run world.
She will compete in the T1 Indoor Triathlon World Cup in Liévin on March 22 and then the Supertri E World Triathlon Championship in London on April 5 before kicking off her 2025 WTCS campaign in Yokohama, Japan in May.
Yee meanwhile is targeting the London Marathon on April 27, his first attempt at the 26.2-mile / 42km distance, before he returns to triathlon later in the year.
