Taylor Knibb won the Yokohama Triathlon to book her place on the US team for the Tokyo Games in July, albeit on a different course than the one used Saturday.
File image of USA’s Taylor Knibb. AP
It was quite a day for American women at the season-opening World Triathlon Championship Series race outside Tokyo, one that bodes well for them at the Olympics in less than two months.
Taylor Knibb won the Yokohama Triathlon to book her place on the US team for the Tokyo Games in July, albeit on a different course than the one used Saturday. The 23-year-old Knibb finished the Olympic distance of a 1.5-kilometre swim, 40-kilometer cycle and 10-kilometre run in 1 hour, 54 minutes, 27 seconds.
Summer Rappaport, who had already qualified for the Tokyo Games, was second, while Taylor Spivey finished fourth. Maya Kingma of the Netherlands was third, preventing an all-American podium.
Rappaport was 30 seconds behind Knibb. Kingma finished in 1:55.05 with Spivey 18 seconds behind Kingma. Austrian Julia Hauser was fifth, three seconds behind Spivey.
“I wasn’t really thinking about Tokyo, I just wanted to get to that finish line,” Knibb said in comments posted on the World Triathlon website.
“Maya was so good on…
