With just two races left to decide the 2021 World Champions, and current Maurice Lacroix Series Ranking leaders Maya Kingma (NED) and Alex Yee (GBR) not racing this weekend, the Groupe Copley World Triathlon Championships Series Montreal is set to see those positions shaken up and the chase blown apart over two days of red-hot super-sprint action on Friday and Saturday, ahead of this year’s Championship Finals in Edmonton.
Kingma scored a stunning gold at WTCS Leeds and bronze in Yokohama, her 11th place at the Olympic Games taking her onto 2315 points, 524 ahead of Tokyo 2020 champion Flora Duffy and nearly 1000 ahead of Sophie Coldwell in third. On the men’s side, Yee currently has a much narrower 39-point lead over new Olympic champion Kristian Blummenfelt and 443 to third-placed Marten Van Riel (BEL).
Both Duffy and Coldwell race in Montreal, as do the USA’s fourth, sixth and seventh-placed athletes Taylor Spivey, Katie Zaferes and Taylor Knibb. Germany’s Laura Lindemann and Italy’s Alice Betto are also set to race the two final events of the season and currently sit just over 1000 points off the top spot.
Montreal will award 1000 points to the winner, that number decreasing by 7.5% with each position. The Championship Finals award 1250 points to the winner with the same incremental decrease thereafter.
The challenge for Montreal is a brand new one for World Triathlon, however. A super-sprint format spread across two days, Friday sees two qualifiers and a repechage to decide who moves on to Saturday’s finals: an elimination event over three races with the starting field of 30 athletes cut to 20 after the first and then just 10 doing battle for gold. Check the full start lists here.
In the men’s race to become World Champion, Marten van Riel leads the charge to catch leader Yee and current number two Kristian Blummenfelt. The Belgian put together the second fastest leg in the Olympic Mixed Relay and he, along with Hayden Wilde (NZL), Leo Bergere (FRA), Kevin McDowell (USA) and defending world champion Vincent Luis (FRA) will certainly be looking to close the gap and make a push for the big prize across what will be two decisive races in Canada.
WTCS Montreal
13-14 August Individuals
15 August Mixed Relay
TriathlonLive.tv
