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. 

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 are likely to 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:

28: Jul ITU World Triathlon Edmonton
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