The ITU World Triathlon Series is back tonight, Friday (well, early Saturday a.m. for those on U.K. time), with WTS Edmonton the sixth of the eight 2018 events.
As with Leeds/Nottingham and Hamburg, the event also includes the third of the 2018 Mixed Relay Series, earning qualification points towards Tokyo 2020.
Here, courtesy of British Triathlon, is an event preview with all of the TV times you need if you want to stay up late tonight / early tomorrow, to follow the (individual) action.
Next stop Edmonton as triathlon world title battle heats up
The sixth of eight rounds of the ITU World Triathlon Series takes place in Edmonton overnight tonight (Friday) over the sprint distance. As the world title races start to shape up, Vicky Holland is in a strong position to challenge for overall honours. There’s also another round of the Mixed Relay Series.
The women’s world title race took an interesting twist earlier this week when defending champion, Flora Duffy (BER) withdrew from tomorrow’s race with injury. She now can’t score enough Series points to defend her title, and that puts USA’s Katie Zaferes into the driving seat. Holland is currently in third position.
To keep the series alive, I raced in Hamburg but that proved to be too soon and set me back again. So pulling out of Edmonton means I have no chance to win or podium in the series.
— Flora Duffy (@floraduffy) July 24, 2018
World title challengers need five good results plus the Grand Final. To be in contention, Holland needs to get as close as possible to the top step of the podium in Edmonton and get another good result at next month’s Montreal race. She won in Edmonton in 2015, but there’s a strong field assembled today, including fierce competition from her own team mates.
Jess Learmonth, Non Stanford and Georgia Taylor Brown have all achieved podium finishes this season, and Jodie Stimpson has two top eight results.
Jonathan Brownlee and Tom Bishop go in the men’s event. They were first and sixth respectively in 2016, so know this sprint course well. Spain’s Mario Mola has a huge lead in the Series rankings and was in excellent form at the previous round in Hamburg.
Brownlee and Bishop will also form half of Saturday’s Mixed Relay Squad, which is aiming to score more points to qualify Great Britain a slot at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Britain’s relay women will be selected after the individual race. The top seven world ranked relay teams based on ranking points over 2018 and 2019 will gain automatic Olympic places.
How to watch:
Women: Saturday 28 July, 00:20-02:10 – BBC Red Button & online (replayed at 09:00)
Men: Saturday 28 July, 02:10-04:10 – BBC Red Button & online (replayed at 10:50)
Mixed Relay: Saturday 28 July, 22:50-01:00 – BBC Red Button & online (replayed at 09:00 on Sunday)
ITU World Triathlon Edmonton; Friday 27 July; 750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run:
Women: Vicky Holland, Jess Learmonth, Non Stanford, Jodie Stimpson, Georgia Taylor-Brown
Men: Tom Bishop, Jonathan Brownlee
Series rankings HERE.
Forthcoming ITU World Triathlon Series dates:
- 27-29: Jul ITU World Triathlon Edmonton
- 27-29: Jul ITU World Triathlon Mixed Relay Series Edmonton
- 25-26: Aug ITU World Triathlon Montreal
- 12-16: Sep ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Gold Coast
