Katie Zaferes competes at the World Triathlon Series on June 09, 2019 in Leeds, England.
Consistent seems to be the word most used to describe triathlete Katie Zaferes this season, and it certainly is accurate.
Yet at the same time, it doesn’t seem to quite do justice to her achievements thus far in the International Triathlon Union’s World Triathlon Series. The top-ranked woman in the 2019 series, the 2016 Olympian won her fourth race in five events this season in Montreal on Saturday, completing the 750-meter swim, 20K bike and 5K run in 58 minutes and 15 seconds.
This was her fifth podium of the year. In addition to her four wins, Zaferes also earned a silver medal.
Zaferes came into this weekend with a 600-point lead over Great Britain’s Jessica Learmonth in the WTS standings. Both were among the first four out of the water after the swim portion to open the race. Zaferes, Learmonth, Brazil’s Vittoria Lopes, who was first out of the water, and Maya Kingma of the Netherlands kept together as the lead pack on the bike and while that group grew to seven, Zaferes was the first out of the transition area to head out on the run.
She wasn’t going to let the same thing happen Saturday.
Zaferes pulled away in the final stretch for an 11-second victory over her challenger, while Learmonth was 26 seconds behind in third place.
The race in Montreal was the fifth of eight on the WTS circuit, which next heads to Hamburg, Germany, on July 6-7.
Karen Price is a reporter from Pittsburgh who has covered Olympic sports for various publications. She is a freelance contributor to TeamUSA.org on behalf of Red Line Editorial, Inc.
