{"id":7516,"date":"2021-03-13T19:38:01","date_gmt":"2021-03-13T19:38:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sportsnewsforyou.com\/?p=7516"},"modified":"2021-03-13T19:38:01","modified_gmt":"2021-03-13T19:38:01","slug":"wts-montreal-how-the-brits-stack-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/?p=7516","title":{"rendered":"WTS Montreal: how the Brits stack up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Just two races stand between Vicky Holland and what could be her first-ever World Tri Series title. In what has been her most successful season to date, the 32-year-old Rio bronze medallist is currently second in the standings on 3579 point, 591 behind Series leader Katie Zaferes (USA). And with 1,000 up for grabs for the winner, and 1250 at the Grand Final, it\u2019s all to play for in this coming Saturday\u2019s Montreal race and the final event in Gold Coast on Saturday 15 September.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u201cI\u2019m just taking it one race at a time,\u201d said Holland on the phone the day before she flew out to Montreal. \u201cMontreal\u2019s a race I\u2019ve not done before but I have noted the key areas, and will take a closer look at those when I get over there. I\u2019ll hopefully then put together a race that I can be proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite a consistent season, which has included two wins (Leeds and Edmonton), the absence of the reigning and two-time world champion Flora Duffy (BER) in the second half of the season due to injury hasn\u2019t gone unnoticed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThat\u2019s opened up a window for someone else to come in and become world champion,\u201d said Holland. \u201cAnd I\u2019m definitely working towards that being me. All I can do is go to these last two races in as good a shape as I possibly can, and I think I\u2019ve put myself in a good position for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Joining Holland on the start line is the full GB senior women\u2019s squad (minus Non Stanford): Jess Learmonth (currently fifth in the rankings), Georgia Taylor-Brown (sixth), Jodie Stimpson (10th)\u00a0and Sophie Coldwell (37th)<\/p>\n

For Learmonth, 2018 has also proved a consistent year, with two top-five finishes on the World Series and silvers at the Gold Coast Commies and Glasgow European Champs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings have come together well at the end of the season so I\u2019m hoping to get a couple of good results in and finish as high up the Series rankings as I can,\u201d said Learmonth pre-Montreal. \u201cObviously there\u2019s a lot of travel involved, so managing that will be a big factor. I need a decent result in Montreal to give me a chance of being competitive overall in the Series, so that\u2019s what I\u2019m focusing on now.\u201d<\/p>\n

While Coldwell, 23, won\u2019t be challenging for the Series win, several stand-out performances (most notably in Leeds where she led until halfway through the run) means she\u2019ll be lining up on the Gold Coast in her first senior final.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m feeling confident for Montr\u00e9al, I\u2019ve had a good block of training. I\u2019ve not raced the WTS for a couple of months now, as I\u2019ve been off on leave, so I\u2019m excited to be racing back at that level. As far as goals, I\u2019d like to swim better than I have been this year. It\u2019s just getting that confidence back, so if I can have a good swim that\u2019ll be really good.\u201d<\/p>\n

But while team tactics usually come into play at one-day competitions, such as the Olympics, the presence of such a strong GB women\u2019s squad in the last two races does not mean there will be any role-playing.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not approaching these races in a team capacity,\u201d said Holland. \u201cNo one\u2019s playing a role for anyone else, and we haven\u2019t done that all season. At the same time we do work together quite well and it\u2019s always good to have a lot of Brits on the start line. We\u2019re in such a strong position at the moment, especially with the girls, whichever race we go to we\u2019re going to have a full start line and that\u2019s great really.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe girls are ruling the roost this year, but that\u2019s a real testament to the team we\u2019ve got and the way in which we encourage each other,\u201d continued Holland. \u201cWe\u2019ve done a great job of nurturing the talent coming through. And that\u2019s a real testament to what British Triathlon have done and what the girls at the top over the years have managed to continue to nurture and cultivate. And hopefully that just keeps going.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

If all goes as planned in the next two events, Holland will join her 2012 London teammate Helen Jenkins and 2016 Rio teammate Non Stanford in an exclusive group of British female world champions.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of it [Montreal and Gold Coast] we\u2019ll count the positions, see where I am and count the points! On the Gold Coast it could absolutely be all to play for, and that\u2019s more exciting than anything else.\u201d<\/p>\n

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220 will be on the ground in Montreal, bringing you all the action as it happens. Don\u2019t miss out by following us on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just two races stand between Vicky Holland and what could be her first-ever World Tri Series title. In what has been her most successful season to date, the 32-year-old Rio bronze medallist is currently second in the standings on 3579 point, 591 behind Series leader Katie Zaferes (USA). And with 1,000 up for grabs for…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}