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NUMBER OF
TRANSITION
AREAS IN
LEEDS FOR
2017
11 JUNE
NUMBER OF AGE-
GROUPERS BRITISH
TRIATHLON EXPECTS
TO RACE IN LEEDS
DATE OF THE
GB STANDARD
DISTANCE CHAMPS
FEBRUARY 2017 I I 27
NEWS INBRIEF
What’s hot and what’s not
in multisport this month...
TRI
BAROMETER
CANADAMAN/
WOMAN EXTREME
Government of Canada
to support the extreme
triathlon event
IRONMAN FRANCE
23 July 2017 named as
new date for classic
French event
WILDFLOWER TRI
No date found for iconic
race in 2017 due to
Californian drought
IRONMAN 70.3
STAFFS
New run venue needed
for 2018 event
OFF-ROAD SERIES
Human Race cancels
trail series due to MOD
land issues
FLORA DUFFY
Bermudan wins third
world title of 2016 at
ITU Cross Champs
ALMERE-AMSTERDAM
Challenge race to host
Long Distance European
Champs in 2017
ALEX YEE
Youth multisporter
crowned winner of
SportsAid’s One-to-
Watch Award
BERMUDA
Caribbean island
to bid for 2020 ITU
World Champs
CHALLENGE PRAGUE
Challenge announce
Czech Republic debut
on 29 July 2017
Entries are now open for the age-group
ITUWorld Triathlon Leeds races in Yorkshire
( 10-11 June), withmore than 5,000 age-groupers
expected to participate over the weekend.
The two days of racing kick off at Roundhay Park
with the beginner-friendly GO TRI event on the
Saturday. On Sunday the elite ITU races – expected
to feature the Brownlee brothers – take place, along
with both sprint- and standard-distance events and
the relay options.
The organisers have also confirmed that the
Leeds event will include the British Standard
Distance Triathlon Championships for 2017. The
race is moving from its former venue, Liverpool,
where it has been held for the past four years. “After
four fantasticallymemorable years at Tri Liverpool,
we have decided tomove the British Standard
Distance Triathlon Championships to the heartland
of the sport in 2017,” said Jack Buckner, British
Triathlon’s chief executive.
For spectators watching live and on television,
the Leeds event’s debut in 2016was memorable for
the heroics of the Brownlees in themen’s elite race,
and the battle between eventual winner Gwen
Jorgensen and Flora Duffy in the women’s. Yet for
many age-group competitors the day was marred
by organisational problems and poor
communication from the race organisers,
a partnership between British Triathlon, Leeds
City Council, UK Sport and ITU/Ironman under
the Lagardère Sports umbrella.
Themajor problems centred around the split
Roundhay Park/city centre transition, themost
serious of the issues being the long delay in the
post-race drops of bags containing warmclothing.
Thankfully, for 2017 the organisers will stick to a
single transition in Roundhay Park, the venue of the
swim leg. The bike course has also been changed
(though is yet to be finalised), with the run leg
taking athletes fromT2 in Roundhay Park into
Leeds’ city centre’s MillenniumSquare.
British Triathlon says full details of the new
course and ‘additional improvements to the event
experience following feedback from2016
participants’ will be announced in the coming
months at leeds.triathlon.org.
The federation has also confirmed the rest of
its Major Events for the 2017 season. The Bedford
Autodrome Duathlon will kick things off on
9 April with the British Duathlon Championships
before the Strathclyde Park Multisport Festival
hosts the Sprint Distance Triathlon Championships
on 27 May. After Leeds, the Middle Distance
Triathlon Championships will be held at the
ever-popular Vitruvian Triathlon on 9 September
at RutlandWater in Leicestershire.
CHANGES FOR LEEDS
Alterations made for 2017 after controversial age-group debut
Leeds takes over from Liverpool as the
venue of the British Standard Distance
Triathlon Championships in 2017
UK NEWS