This is the third of five stops on the Marathon World Series as the first two took place in Setubal, Portugal (May 28-29), and Paris, France (July 9-10).

Both men and women will race a 10K on Saturday, the same distance that will be raced at the Olympic Games in less than two years' time in the French capital of Paris. The top eight finishers will receive prize money, with the winner receiving USD $3,500.

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Reigning Olympic champion Ana Marcela Cunha of Brazil is the women’s series leader in 2022 and will be the race favourite on Saturday in Canada as six of the top eight on the series list are set to compete. Sharon Van Rouwendaal of the Netherlands is also on the start list as she got the best of Cunha at June’s FINA World Championships in the 10K, while the Brazilian won golds in the 5K and 25K. The 10K though is the main race here, and Van Rouwendaal and Cunha, the winners of the last two Olympic gold medals, have been the class of the field in 2022.

If anyone can take them down, it could be Germany’s Leonie Beck, who split the pair by winning silver in Budapest at the FINA World Championships in the 10K. Beck has only raced at one of the World Series events, finishing fifth in a photo finish at the first stop in Portugal.

The Italian duo of Ginevra Taddeucci and Barbara Pozzobon, who sit third and fifth in the overall standings, could also factor into the two-hour race.

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Italy’s Gregorio Paltrinieri is leading the men’s list this season, but will not be in Canada after a long summer of racing, including pool and open water events at the World Championships in June and the recent European Championships in his home nation. The race will also be without Olympic champion Florian Wellbrock of Germany, who was also third at the recent World Championships in the 10K and was the World champ in the 5K.

That leaves the door open for Hungary’s Kristof Rasovszky and David Betlehem to close the gap in the overall standings as they sit second and third thus far this year. Italy will be sending a large contingent to Canada to compete, however, as the group is led by Worlds silver medalist Domenico Acerenza and 25K FINA World champ Dario Verani, with the two tied for fifth in the world series point standings this year.

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France’s Marc-Antoine Olivier, who just missed the podium at the World Championships finishing fourth, will be racing as well. He raced in Portugal at stop one but did not finish.

Suppose a European does not touch first in the 10K. In that case, it could go the way to Australia’s Nicholas Sloman, who is seventh in the points standings this year and was also the highest non-European finisher in the 10K at the World Championships, placing eighth overall.

The host nation Canada will be led by Hau-Li Fan, who was 17th at the FINA World Championships.

The race will be on August 27 at 1:00 p.m. local time. Follow all the action live and on-demand on the FINA YouTube Channel