Holland sets up title shootout on the Gold Coast

Holland won in Montreal on Saturday, with fellow Brit Georgia Taylor-Brown finishing third.

The win means that the Olympic bronze medallist heads into the final event of the series just 34 points behind Katie Zaferes in the overall standings after starting the day 590 points back.

And, despite the fact that Holland has been victorious on three occasions in the World Series this year, including the last two in a row, her rival Zaferes will be in front on the line in September.

"I'd worked out before the start that if this exact result had happened, what would be the situation going into the Gold Coast," she said.

"I've won three races this year, more than I could've asked for at the start of the season – I'm delighted with that.

"It'll be all to play for in the Gold Coast and that's a really exciting prospect. We'll just count the points and see what happens."

Holland had to do things the hard way as she fought back from a delayed start in the swim.

"I'm under the impression that normally you get a take your marks but there wasn’t one," she added.

"The horn just went. I assumed that it was a technical fault, looked across, and everyone had gone.

"On the first loop, I worked really hard to get myself back into a good position and I was just on the back of that front pack.

"On the second lap, I had to swim on my own and I got caught by the current a bit – I swam a little bit further than I needed to!"

Taylor-Brown, meanwhile, celebrated her third podium of the season with her third-place finish after a second-placed finish in Leeds and a third in Edmonton.

And the 24-year-old was rightly delighted by the remarkable progress that she has made.

"It's just been an incredible year," she said.

"Me and Vix [Holland] were just saying that I think we're each other's lucky charms – every race she does well, I seem to do well, but it's just incredible.

"I wasn't even sure how many World Series [races] I was going to do this year. I wasn't going to do this one a few weeks back but after a good race in Edmonton, I thought why not do this one and finish the grand final in a higher position.

"I'm really looking forward to going into the grand final now."

Sportsbeat 2018