Two days, six super-sprint races, one new Olympic Champion and only one winner: the women’s World Triathlon Championship Series Montreal gets underway this weekend and in a brand new, high octane format.
The Series returns to Montreal’s
city-centre course for a fifth year, only this time trimmed back to a 300m
swim, 3-lap/7.2km bike and 2-lap/2km run. Friday will see two qualification
races from which 10 athletes will progress, along with a further 10 from the
subsequent repechage. Those 30 will then start Saturday’s final round, in which
a total of three super-sprints will decide the champion: the final 10 finishers
will be cut after the first, the same number after the second, leaving 10
athletes to battle it out for gold.
Tactics will be key, saving energy
for as long as possible without risking elimination. The rest times between
Saturday’s final races will be under 20 minutes and the points towards the 2021
World Championship will be crucial. You can watch all the action on
TriathlonLive from 11.15am local time / 17.15 CEST.
Qualification race one
With the qualifier line-ups
determined by alternating current ranking position and the Series leader Maya
Kingma not racing, the new Olympic Champion Flora Duffy (BER) leads the line in
race one. Duffy was back with a bang at WTCS Leeds in June and delivered a
magical run for gold in Tokyo, but faces a very different kind of challenge in
Montreal as she pursues a record-equalling third women’s world title.
Duffy will line up with Team USA’s
Olympic silver medallists Katie Zaferes and Taylor Knibb fresh from their relay
success over a similar distance in Tokyo, as is France’s Leonie Periault. It
was Zaferes who delivered the fastest women’s leg in that Mixed Relay, while
Knibb was fastest on the bike that day and Periault second only to teammate
Cassandre Beaugrand over the 2km run.
Non Stanford goes out in race one for
Great Britain, Verena Steinhauser and rising star Beatrice Mallozzi lining up
for the Italians. Amelie Kretz is the sole Canadian to start for the home
nation, Natalie van Coevorden returns along with sisters Jaz and Kira Hedgeland
for Australia and Niina Kishimoto will want to bounce back from disappointment
in Tokyo and get her name on Saturday’s line up.
Qualification race two
After her sparkling bronze at WTCS
Leeds and her time in Tokyo as a reserve for Team GB, Sophie Coldwell will be
raring to go, and her explosive power should be well suited to the demands of
the format. USA’s Taylor Spivey will be equally eager to get back onto the blue
carpet and continue her pursuit of a first world title after solid results in
Yokohama and Leeds.
Laura Lindemann was second only to
Zaferes in her Olympic super-sprint leg for Team Germany as they finished 6th
in the Games. It may be her first time racing in Montreal, but she will be
prepared for the intense race style and, with a first Series podium within
reach, Lindemann will need no further motivation here.
The experienced figures of Emma
Jackson (AUS) and Juri Ide (JPN) will want to progress safely without having to
negotiate the extra demands of a repechage, Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes is likely
to be one of the fastest through the water and Kirsten Kasper’s (USA) run speed
could be decisive as all of the 22 athletes in the second qualification race
chase those first ten places across the line.
Full start lists can be found here. https://triathlon.org/events/start_lists/2021_world_triathlon_montreal?mc_cid=4e132e7d36&mc_eid=6139649918
Watch all the action on TriathlonLive
from 11.15am local time / 17.15 CEST
ABOUT WORLD TRIATHLON
World Triathlon is the international
governing body for the Olympic and Paralympic sport of triathlon and all
related multisport disciplines around the world, including duathlon, aquathlon,
cross triathlon and winter triathlon. Triathlon made its Olympic debut in
Sydney 2000, with a third medal event, the Mixed Team Relay, added to the
programme at Tokyo 2020, while para triathlon was first added to the Paralympic
programme at Rio 2016. World Triathlon is proudly committed to the development
of the sport worldwide, with inclusion, equality, sustainability and
transparency at our core as we seek to help triathletes at all levels of the
sport to be extraordinary.
Michael Phelps Teaches Swimming
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