In its third appearance on the Commonwealth Games programme, the women’s event promises to present some of the best racing of the season with an impressive start list. As the very first medal event of the Games, check out who we think could feature on the podium.
Excellent England
Jodie Stimpson will be the woman to stop on Thursday. The English lass enjoyed a breakout season last year, in which she won her first World Triathlon Series race and finished second overall in the rankings. This year, she blasted out of the blocks right where she left off with a pair of early wins. Currently ranked third in the women’s World Triathlon Series, few of the women on the start list can put together a triathlon like Stimpson can right now. Add on that she has teammates Lucy Hall to help her out on the swim and bike, as well as Vicky Holland pushing the pace and England will be one tough team to take down.
Cycle till you drop… ‘em
The women’s field is full of swift cyclists, which should make for an interesting race across one seriously testing bike course. Kirsten Sweetland (CAN) and Emma Moffatt (AUS) have proved race after race this year that they are dangerous on two wheels. Sweetland scored silver at the World Triathlon Hamburg just two weeks ago when she flew out of her saddle and carried the momentum through the run to the finish line. While Moffatt failed to finish in Hamburg, her race record speaks for itself.
Repeat offender
Andrea Hewitt (NZL) is the only woman to line up at Loch Lake as a previous Commonwealth Games medallist. The Kiwi has been a consistent force in women’s triathlon for a number of years now and looked to be back on top of her game two weeks ago in Germany when she ran herself into fourth place. Hewitt can truly do it all from the swim to riding hard to bringing it home, so keep an eye on this veteran come Thursday.
Down to the last sprint
The women will not want to leave the gold medal down to the last five kilometres with the likes of Emma Jackson (AUS) on the start list. With two top three finishes in sprint distance events this year, the Aussie has powered her way onto the podium with back end run speed. While she hasn’t had the same good fortune over twice the distance, we aren’t counting her out this week.
The course
Swim (1.5km) - The swim will take place in the Strathclyde Loch on a course consisting of two laps of 750m. The athletes will swim anticlockwise around a rectangular-shaped, marked course.
Bike (40km) – The bike will be featured over five tough and testing 8km laps. With hills on each lap, the trick will to be ride hard but save enough legs to run home.
Run (10km) – The run will be completed over three 3.3km run loops.
The women will kick of the Commonwealth action in Glasgow at 11:00am on Thursday 24 July. Follow triathlonlive on twitter for live updates. Click here to see how you can watch the race.