YOKOHAMA, Japan — Taylor Knibb won the season-opening World Championship Series triathlon on Saturday to book her place on the U.S. team for the Tokyo Olympics in July.
The 23-year-old Knibb finished the Olympic distance of a 1.5-kilometer swim, 40-kilometer cycle and 10-kilometer run in 1 hour, 54 minutes, 27 seconds in a race dominated by Americans.
Summer Rappaport, who has 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.
American Katie Zaferes was 22nd among the 55 starters in a time of 1:57.12.
Zaferes, the 2019 world champion, had podium finishes in the last three races in Yokohama — silvers in 2017 and 2018 and a course-record of 1:52.12 while winning in 2019. The coronavirus pandemic prevented the race from being held in 2020.
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