Madrid, which has staged an ITU race for the last nine years, was also the setting for the start of the qualification for London 2012 two years ago.

The course in Madrid heads through the Casa de Campo Park (pictured below) in the centre of Madrid, and takes a scenic route around the city's most spectacular sights.

Competitors will be battling to secure crucial places at this summer's Olympic triathlon, with New Zealand and Germany in pole position to take the maximum three athletes to London.

That is because they occupy seventh and eighth spot in the rankings, and Switzerland in ninth will be hopeful of edging them out.

To do so they will hope that Nicola Spirig can repeat her win from 2010 in Madrid, and she has been in good form after a silver medal in Mooloolaba, Australia, as well as a win in the European Championships

Individual spots on the 55 strong field for London are also up for grabs, with Mateja Simic of Slovenia, Maaike Caelers of the Netherlands, Czech Vendula Frintova and Hungary's Margit Vanek separated by just 40 points.


New Zealand's Andrea Hewitt (pictured above, right, with Erin Densham, centre & Helen Jenkins, left) will be the woman to beat in the race, having not failed to finish on the podium of an ITU race since London last year.

She also won her first series in Madrid back in 2009, and would go to the top of the series ranking with a repeat this weekend.

Chile's Barbara Riveros Diaz and Australia's Emma Jackson are hoping to find form, while Ainhoa Murua of Spain will hope to shine on home soil after claiming a silver at the European Championships.

Canada and Portugal are in pole position to take three athletes in the men's rankings, whilst Richard Varga of Slovakia will battle with Israeli Dan Alterman for a European spot.

An African berth is being fought over by Mehdi Essadiq of Morocco and Zimbabwe's Christopher Felgate.

Peters Croes of Belgium and Argentina's Gonzalo Tellechea are also both battling hard to book their Olympic spot.

Switzerland will hope that Sven Riederer can repeat his good form at the ITU race in San Diego, where he came second to Britain's Jonathan Brownlee.

Riederer is now the joint most successful man in the history of the men's series not to win a race after that showing.

Brownlee will be favourite to win though as he shows good form ahead of the Olympics after returning from injury.

Alexander Bryukhankov, another quintuple medallist, and France's Laurent Vidal and David Hauss, are in good form and shaping up well.

The women's race takes place on Saturday, with the men competing on Sunday, and $170,000 (£110,000 / €135,000) is on offer for the winners of the two races.

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