Triathlon: Frenchman Raphael and Briton Potter in prime position to win Arena Games Triathlon

SINGAPORE - French Olympian Aurelien Raphael is in prime position to win the Arena Games Triathlon, a global hybrid event that features both physical and virtual racing, after topping the heats of the Singapore leg on Friday (May 6).

He clocked 25min 25sec to become the fastest qualifier going into Saturday's grand final at the Marina Bay area.

Raphael, 34, is joint-top of the standings of the three-leg series with 250 points, level with German Justus Nieschlag, 30, who also qualified for the grand final.

British Olympic champion Alex Yee, who is fourth overall with 231 points, overcame a five-second penalty to finish second in his heat behind Raphael.

The top two athletes from each of the three heats automatically reach the grand final. The next four from each heat as well as the five next fastest athletes will compete in the repechage races on Saturday, with the top two from each race also making it to the grand final.

Hayden Wilde, the second fastest qualifier in 25:35, was pleased with his performance in his Arena Games Triathlon debut.

The New Zealander said: "It was absolutely awesome. I think we are the first people in the fresh water here and I had to get a gap on the first stage and played it easy in the second stage on the water and played my cards right and took it easy for the last 400m of the run.

"I love the heat and guys like Kenji (Nener) and Marten (van Riel) will make it very intense so I look forward to that."

Meanwhile, all four British athletes - Beth Potter, Jessica Learmonth, Georgia Taylor-Brown and Sian Rainsley - in the women's races also reached the grand final.

They will be joined by the six fastest athletes from Saturday's repechage.

Taylor-Brown, who won the mixed relay gold and triathlon silver at the Tokyo Olympics, said: "The aim was to do the bare minimum to get through. I didn't feel like I was trying hard but it was so hot.

"We did what we needed to do and now we can chill out until 4pm tomorrow."

Potter, 30, is sharing the overall lead with 24-year-old Frenchwoman Cassandre Beaugrand, who is not competing in the Singapore leg. Both have 250 points.

Germans Lena Meissner and Anabel Knoll are third and fourth respectively.

The Arena Games Triathlon had featured two legs in Europe last month - Munich (April 9) and London (April 23). The overall winners of the three-leg series will be crowned the inaugural e-sports triathlon world champions in Singapore.

Unlike the previous legs, which were held in indoors, the Singapore leg marked a first as all three disciplines (swim, bike and run) took place outdoors.

The triathletes started off with their swim leg in Marina Reservoir before completing their bike and run legs on smart trainers and self-powered curved treadmills placed on the promenade of Marina Bay.

The Arena Games Triathlon powered by Zwift is a partnership between Super League Triathlon (SLT) and World Triathlon (WT) to grow a global e-sports world championship series.