No Smoke without Fire as Montreal WTCS Mixed Relay Event Cancelled

The Montreal WTCS Mixed Team Relay Event was cancelled on Sunday because of hazardous smoky conditions as Canada battles its most devastating wildfire season on record.

Currently 426 forest fires are burning across Canada and the fires on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts have burned 4.4 million hectares so far, which has forced thousands of Canadians from their homes and spread smoke that has left residents from Toronto to New York gasping for breath.

Air quality across Canada dropped to extremely dangerous levels

The WTCS event location, Le Grand Quai of the Port of Montreal, offers the highest quality outdoor facilities but on this occasion not air quality with thick smog and record-setting pollutant levels from 144 forest fires burning in Quebec. The PM2.5 concentration in Montreal was 32.3 times the WHO annual air quality guideline value.

With the safety of athletes of paramount importance, World Triathlon took the necessary steps to rightly cancel the Mixed Team Relay event.

You can monitor the air quality hazardous and unhealthy area’s of Montreal on the IQAir website map.