Spain's Mario Mola wins Montreal triathlon; Tyler Meslawschuk top Canadian

Mario Mola of Spain won the Montreal Triathlon on Sunday for his fourth victory on the ITU World Series circuit this year.

Mola finished the 1.5-kilometre swim, 40-kilometre cycle and 10-kilometre run in one hour, 47 minutes 36 seconds. He came in 16 seconds ahead of Kritian Blummenfelt of Norway and 42 ahead of third-place Jacob Birtwhistle of Australia.

The top Canadian was Tyler Meslawschuk of Winnipeg in eighth place.

Mola, who has a commanding lead in ITU standings, was coming off a win in Edmonton last month to sweep the two Canadian stops on the tour.

Charles Paquet of Port-cartier, Que. worked his way into a breakaway group of four in the cycling, with Blummenfelt, Andreas Schilling of Denmark and Casper Starnes of Norway, that came in 1:03 ahead of the peloton, giving the 21year-old and his new-found cohorts a head start on the run.

Paquet, was Canadian and Pan Am junior champion in 2016, finished well back.

Schilling finished fifth, just behind Richard Murray of South Africa.

It rained heavily before the start, but let up in time for a wet but precipitationfree race.

On Saturday, Vicky Holland of Britain won the women's race ahead of American Katie Zaferes, who leads Holland by a small margin in ITU World Series standings heading into the final event of the season next month in Gold Coast, Australia. Joanna Brown of Carp, Ont. finished fourth.