An early 7am start greets the junior women on Thursday morning as they toe the line at the beach in English Bay, Vancouver, ready to fight it out for the prestigious world championship title.
Last year’s world champion, Great Britain’s Hollie Avil, won’t be defending her title as she concentrates on gaining selection to the British Olympic squad. However, last year’s silver medallist, Ashleigh Gentle from Australia, will be looking to step onto the top of the podium.
Home support will be centred on Paula Findlay from Edmonton who finished sixth at last year’s world championships in Hamburg. The young Canadian has shown consistent improvement in the past couple of years and the partisan crowd will spur her on.
The threat from Europe arrives in the form of European junior champion Emmie Charayron from France and European silver medallist, Kirsty McWilliam from Great Britain. Anais Moniz from Portugal won the world junior championships in 2005 and will look to repeat that success in her final year at the junior level.
Click here for complete junior women’s start list
The gold and silver medallists from the 2007 junior men’s world championships, Aurélien Raphael from France and Alistair Brownlee from Great Britain, are stepping up to the Under23 level this year, leaving the top of the podium wide open.
Last year’s bronze medallist and newly crowned European junior champion, Vincent Luis from France will start as one of the favourites. However, he will have to fight off Joao Silva from Portugal who he narrowly beat in a sprint finish at the Europeans in Lisbon last month.
A whole host of younger siblings also pose threats with Jonathan Brownlee, the younger brother of Alistair Brownlee, the 2006 junior world champion, in contention following a bronze medal in Lisbon. A trio of Russians hail from distinguished families as Igor Polyanskiy, Andrey Brukhankov and Denis Vasiliev all look to emulate the successes of their older brothers.
Click here for complete junior men’s start list
Click here for official website of the world championships
Click here for ITU’s world championship page