Irish duo set for Stockholm World Triathlon Series

Derry native Aileen Reid goes into Saturday's Stockholm ITU World Triathlon Series race wearing number 8. The penultimate race of the Series has unsurprisingly attracted all the top names with anyone in with a shot of winning the world title lining up in the search of valuable points.

Reid has come into some good form of late taking silver at the Tiszaujvaros World Cup just 2 weeks ago. On that occasion she blitzed the swim and managed to stay away in a break away before running through to take silver less than 30 seconds behind the winner. There will be similar tactics employed this weekend with a fast swim setting up the opportunity for a good result.

Reid's training mates Anne Haug and Jodie Stimpson currently dominate the top of the standings and will go into Stockholm as the favourites. The number 1 ranked Anne Haug has the Achilles heel that is her weak swim. Reid and the rest of the strong swimmers will be looking to capitalise on this and ensure the fast running German is nowhere near the front of the field when they get to the business end.

"Aileen is on an upward curve at the moment and is coming into some good form as we head towards the Grand Final in London. It's a very strong field but Aileen can get a great result from this race." Commented Triathlon Ireland's Technical Directory Tommy Evans.

Cork man Bryan Keane will be stepping onto the start pontoon 2 hours later for the men's race. Keane started the season with a bang picking up a haul of top results including the first World Cup podium by an Irishman.

Keane was less than impressed at missing the final of the Tiszaujvaros World Cup after a poor swim in his last race and will be out to make amends in Stockholm. The race contains all the big hitters including pre race favourites the Brownlee brothers. Younger brother Jonny outsprinted Alistair at the last leg of the World Series, however this weekend's Olympic distance may play into the hands of the 25 year old Olympic Champion, Alistair.

Keane lines up wearing 32 in the centre of the pontoon and will need to get off to a fast start in order to make one of the lead bike packs. If he can get off the bike with the leaders he has the ability to run into the top 20 or better.

The women's race starts at 12:20pm on Saturday 24th followed by the men's race at 2:30pm and can be viewed live on the BBC Red Button or triathlon.org/tv. Both the elite men and elite women will be racing over the Olympic distance consisting of a 1500m, 2 lap swim of Stockholm's harbour followed by a technical 9 lap, 40km bike course and a 4 lap, 10km run.