Friday 8 July will see Oscar Kelly, guided by Charlie Harding, Michael Salisbury and Finley Jakes race in Montreal as athletes from around the world head to Canada to compete in the World Triathlon Para Series race.
An elite paratriathlon race is back on the schedule in Montreal for the first time since 2019 and takes place two weeks after the excitement of the World Triathlon Championship Series racing in the city.
For Kelly, competing in the men’s PTVI race, this will be his first World Triathlon Para Series (WTPS) race of 2022 having ended last year with sixth place at the World Triathlon Para Championships in Abu Dhabi. He’ll be up against the PTVI winner of the last WTPS race, in Yokohama in May, Kyle Coon of the USA.
The Team England Commonwealth Games athlete will be guided by Charlie Harding who will also be his guide in Birmingham this summer.
Jakes will go in the men’s PTS4 race having secured sixth at 2022 World Triathlon Para Cup Besancon in June. Jeremy Peacock (AUS) finished fourth in France and Chikara Ara (JPN) tenth, both of whom will compete in Montreal. Jakes is the current British Paraduathlon champion and also took the win at the domestic Paratri Super Series event in Llanelli earlier this year.
Salisbury, racing in the men’s PTS5 category, raced and won the PTS5 race in Llanelli having also claimed victory at the British Paraduathlon Championships in April. He’ll be up against Tokyo Paralympic bronze medallist Stefan Daniel (CAN), who comes into the race off the back of victory at 2022 World Triathlon Para Cup A Coruna.
Ile Notre-Dame will host the racing on Friday and is the venue for Montreal’s F1 races, with the athletes competing on part of the track.
The 750m swim will take place in the Olympic Basin, a legacy of when Montreal hosted the Games in 1976, and will be a single lap of the course. The race will then see athletes transition onto the bike leg for 22.5km, completing five laps of the route on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
The run will also take place on part of the track and on the paths parallel to the basin where the swim took place. Comprising two laps totalling 5km, the run will lead athletes in front of the grandstand overlooking the swim and run and onto the finish.
There’s a five hour time difference from British Summer Time (BST) to Montreal, with Salisbury in the men’s PTS5 race starting at 12:30 BST.
Kelly and Harding will go at 12:37:46 BST, the specific timing to allow the B1 (blind) PTVI athletes to start ahead of B2 (more severe visual impairment) and B3 (less severe visual impairment of which Kelly is) athletes, but who are all part of the same race.
Jakes will be the last of the British athletes to start when his race begins at 12:55 BST.
An extended highlights package of the World Para Triathlon Series in Montreal will be available to watch on TriathlonLIVE.tv.
There is now less than a month to go until the World Para Triathlon Series racing in Swansea where coverage will be live and on-demand at TriathlonLIVE.tv.
