Less then 24 hours after the completion of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games triathlon, the International Triathlon Union today announced an innovative new platform for the sport by establishing a pioneering new series that will take triathlon to new heights.

This is a great step forward for triathlon and it is exciting for triathlon to be moving in this direction. The benefit of live TV is it creates a proper season. People will know when to watch and when to tune into triathlon.

The new format will consist of six World Championship events plus a Grand Final every year, extending the current single World Championships event into a series. A major feature is the world’s best athletes will now consistently race head-to-head. World class venues in internationally renowned cities will be selected to host each World Championship event with guaranteed live international high-definition television offered.

For the first three years, the events programme will be scheduled on a monthly basis from March to September. In an Olympic year, the Grand Final will move to October or November. This provides the athletes, coaches, National Federations, sponsors and television broadcasters with a well planned stable schedule of high quality events.

Each World Championship event leading up to the Grand Final will seek to integrate a mass participation and youth element alongside the elite races. The ITU Age-Group World Championships will be staged at the annual Grand Final event along with Junior and Under23 competitions.

ITU has formed a partnership with a major international sports business to collaborate on a fresh and exciting new programme of events, the ‘ITU Triathlon World Championship Series’.

I think this new series is a fantastic way to enable athletes to showcase triathlon to the world. Even better is the incorporation of the various age-group championships into the ‘Grand Final’. In how many other sports can ‘amateurs’ rub shoulders on the start line with ‘the elite’?

Well done the ITU!!!

Click here to watch the ITU promo video.

If you liked this article, why not subscribe to TrispaceRSS Feed