The world’s biggest triathlon is just days away. The weekend boasts full start lists in the elite races and Mixed Relay World Championships. And all of that without mention of 10,000 age groupers descending upon Hamburg to take part in the action. Before the races get kicked off, elite athletes took time to answer questions about the 2013 season, the high competition here in Hamburg and the buzz around the events.

Alistair Brownlee
On competing against his brother and Javier Gomez
“They are both great opponents and both equally difficult to beat when they are having a good day. I think it’s the first time we’ve all raced since the Olympics but we are obviously all coming in at slightly different stages of our year. Javi has done pretty much every race under the sun the last six months. Jonny hasn’t done very many races and neither have I. We’ll be racing in very different ways. Jonny might have the slight advantage at sprint distance, he’s got that speed.”

On the WTS Kitzbuehel race
“It was a fantastic race in Ktizbuehel. I quite like going up hills. But quite honestly if it had been any longer it probably would have gotten easier in some ways. It’s about that time when you can go pretty hard really. If it was longer it might have been easier. I live in the north of England but we actually have steeper hills where I live.”

Anne Haug
On preparing for the sprint course
“The main focus was to recover from the race (Kitzbuehel) because it was a very tough race obviously. The first week I spent really recovering to feel well again. Then I had a couple sessions, you can’t really do anything more than that. I hope it’s enough for the race on Saturday. I’m confident. I think the speed is there. I was strong from the climbing so you have to move the strength into speed.”

On competing on home soil
“It’s amazing. I never thought it would be such an advantage to be at a home race, but it really is. I saw it last year. When so many people are yelling for you and screaming for you. It’s amazing for the Germans as well as the international athletes. It’s one of my highlights of the year. I want to have a good performance and show the people what they are cheering for.”

On her world ranking
“You can just plan to do your best. I can’t influence other athletes. I can just do my own training and see what there is to improve and there is a lot to improve still. I mean my swim isn’t perfect. I don’t feel like No. 1, I still feel like a development athlete. I want to be even better for next year.”

Jan Frodeno
On the sprint course
“It’s a fantastic race with huge crowds, but the sprint format is not something that comes naturally to me, especialy getting older. So it was really interesting preparing for it because there’s a big difference between Olympic distance and sprint distance.”

On his future
“I’ve said I want to try some longer distances, try some different formats of our sport. Which, I guess a post-Olympic year is a good one to do that. I just wanted to do it after Hamburg. I’m racing 70.3 European champs. But I’m not excluding coming back afterwards.”

On team relay
“Even Alistair Brownlee said he’s not selected yet and if he’s not selected none of us are. I’m hoping to be part of it. It’s great to share the excitement, but also the nerves before. It’s a great format that puts a bit of the fun back into it. We are all individual athletes and used to racing on our own. When we come together I think it’s that atmosphere that can push us especially here at home. On paper the Brits are pretty unbeatable, but we’ve seen in 4x100 races anything can happen.”

Gwen Jorgensen
On her quick triathlon success
“It seems pretty crazy I guess. But I grew up swimming and running my whole life. I’m still working on the bike. As you could see in Kitzbuehel, it’s my weakness.”

On the close women’s rankings
“I think the goal for all of us is to win. It’s definitely close. I think it is exiting for the fans. Anne’s going to be hard to beat. It’s her home country here. A lot of people are in top form. I’m just going to go out there and try my best.”