Auckland, New Zealand is where the ITU World Triathlon Series 2015 continues this Sunday, with Jonny Brownlee and Lucy Hall among the athletes carrying British hopes in the first standard distance race of the year (1.5km swim/40km bike/10km run).
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The elite women’s race will get underway at 12.50pm local time (11:50pm Saturday evening UK time), with series leader Gwen Jorgensen (USA) confirmed to start, along with compatriots Katie Zaferes – second at WTS Abu Dhabi a few weeks ago – and last seasons WTS Stockholm winner Sarah True.
Apart than Lucy Hall, the only other British female racing is Jessica Learmonth, 26, recently named into British Triathlon’s 2015 World Class Programme.
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Racing competing alongside them will be New Zealand’s own Andrea Hewitt, a strong cyclist who placed 6th at London 2012, and Germany’s Anne Haug, who also has collected two golds and a silver medal at previous WTS Auckland races.
Not to forget Olympic silver medallist Lisa Norden (SWE) and WTS Abu Dhabi’s bronze medallist Flora Duffy (BER). For the full start list head here.
Men’s race
Getting underway at 4.40pm local time (4.40am Sunday morning UK time, taking daylight saving into account), the men’s race features Spain’s two top athletes – the current WTS 2015 leader, Mario Mola, and last year’s champion Javier Gomez.
Jonny Brownlee comes into this race seeded third after his fifth-place finish in Abu Dhabi earlier this month, while elder brother Alistair won’t be racing.
Other British men include Tom Bishop, Grant Sheldon and Philip Graves. Internationally, the other big names include João Silva (POR), who placed fourth in Abu Dhabi, Slovakia’s super-swimmer Richard Varga and South Africa’s Henri Schoeman. Full start list here.
You can watch all the action live on the BBC Red Button and BBC Sport website or on triathlonlive.tv (£), and highlights will be shown on BBC 2 at 4pm on Sunday (29th March). We’ll be carrying race reports online as soon as possible after they finish.
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Who do you think will win WTS Auckland? Let us know in the comments below!