Findlay headlines at home as ITU World Cup circuit returns to Edmonton
The ITU World Cup circuit returns to Edmonton for the first time in four years, a perfect time to see home grown star Paula Findlay in the best form of her career.
The last time there was a World Cup event in Edmonton, in 2007, Findlay did race and did win, it was in the junior division of the PATCO Pan American championships. This time, she’ll return as the new darling of triathlon and current leader in the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series.
Expect crowds to be tightly packed around the course as everyone hopes to catch a glimpse of the ITU’s newest star on course, almost exactly ten years after the event that first put Edmonton on the triathlon map, the 2001 ITU World Championships. Edmonton hosted World Cup events from then up until 2007, with triathlon royalty Simon Whitfield, Bevan Docherty, Emma Moffatt, Loretta Harrop, Emma Snowsill, Hamish Carter, Andy Potts and Siri Lindley topping the podium. It’s also the site of one of the quirkiest ITU World Cup history facts, in more than 20 years of World Cup racing, only one event has ever had to be cancelled - that was the Edmonton men’s race in 2004 when a wintery blast hit the city. The event is the fourth World Cup event of 2011, and the only stop in Canada. Elite Women It’s been quick rise to the top for Findlay in the last 12 months, breaking through for her career first World Cup win last year in Monterrey, then her first Dextro Energy Triathlon Series win in London. She followed that up in Kitzbühel and was the only woman in 2010 to win multiple series races. In 2011, she went from proving last year wasn’t a fluke with a dominant win in Sydney, then caught Moffatt’s record as the most successful woman in series history with a win in Madrid, before overtaking her in Kitzbühel. She currently leads the Dextro Energy Triathlon Series by almost 500 points, and has won five of her last six series races.
Therefore, Findlay is the overwhelming favourite and if she puts together the times she’s been capable of in the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series, it’s hard to see who else will come close. As seen from the 22-year old’s last kilometre kicks in Sydney, Madrid and Kitzbühel – her running ability is simply spectacular and it’s hard to see anyone stopping her become the first Canadian winner in Edmonton. In the six years of women’s World Cup races there, only Australian and American women have ever won the Edmonton event.
