Top star Zaferes to sit out this weekend

The No. 1 name in the sport won’t be competing in Edmonton’s World Triathlon Series event Saturday.

Losing the top name in the game is definitely a negative, but the positive is that now it won’t be the Katie Zaferes Parade

There’s a whale of a battle going on for second, third and fourth and, with this the last stop prior to this year’s Grand Final in Lausanne, Switzerland, the women positioned second, third and fourth will battle it out without doing it in Zaferes’ rearview mirror.

American Zaferes has 4,925 points. Jessica Learmonth and Georgia Taylor-brown, both of Great Britain, are in a virtual deadlock for second with 4,171 and 4,121 with Taylor Spivey of the USA (3,926) not far behind.

Vincent Luis of France leads with 4,125 points with Spaniards Javier Gomez Noya (3,687) and Fernando Alarza (3,282) as well as Jacob Birtwhistle of Australia still in contention back at 3,255.

Seven of the top 10 women and nine of the top 10 men will compete here Saturday.

Edmonton, which will have a full field of 55 for the men’s event, right now has 48 of the 55 in the men’s event, competing for the US$125,000.

“Katie had such a wide lead in the series she doesn’t need to come. She’s decided to rest her legs a little bit and take that time off and instead run in the Tokyo Olympics test event,” he added of giving the ITU and local organizing committee a name for the dry run and give herself a look at the lay of the land.

Age group and various distance events go from 7 a.m. Saturday until the women’s elite race at 3:30 p.m. and the men’s race at 5:30. Another full day of events is scheduled Sunday highlighted by the elite mixed relay at 5:30.