Duffy To Compete In Triathlon Series In Montreal
Bermuda’s Olympic gold medalist Flora Duffy is set to compete in the women’s World Triathlon Championship Series Montreal this weekend.
The report on the World Triathlon website said, “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.
“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.”
The World Triathlon Championship Series Montreal Elite Women start list follows below [PDF here]:
