It’s a new year, so why not look ahead and see what’s new in the world of triathlons for 2007. The sport of triathlon appears to be on fire, it’s just as hot as the awesome bike split Normann Stadler had at the Ironman World Championship this past year. The number of participants seems to be on the rise evident as some triathlons are selling out in matter of hours or days. The number of events we have to choose from each year keeps expanding. New vendors are entering the lucrative triathlon market while others continue to spend R&D dollars designing new technologically advanced gear for us. NOTE: This post was getting too long, so we are going to split it up into several posts. This blog entry will focus on the triathlon changes and new races for the year.
This past year the ITU decided to shorten the length of the ITU Long Distance triathlon from a 4km swim, 120km bike, 30km run to a 3km swim, 80km bike, 20km run (1.8mi swim, 50mi bike, 12.4mi run), basically now double an Olympic distance race, which is shorter that an half ironman distance race. Should it still be called a Long Distance race, who knows. One of the interesting reasons stated somewhere was that this new distance would work better for TV broadcasting. Many Pro triathlete’s on the ITU circuit are unhappy with the ITU’s decision and have signed the petition on the Triathlon Professionals website to have the ITU rescind its decision.
On the other hand, three new triathlon series were announced; the Island Triathlon Series (The Island Eighty) in the Caribbean, the National Triathlon Series in New Zealand, and the highly talked about Triathlon One O One series in the United States.
• The Island Triathlon Series (The Island Eighty) is starting off with one race this year in Turks & Caicos in December with plans to expand to other islands in the Caribbean in the coming years. The race distance is slightly unique at 80 miles, with a 1mi swim, a 66mi bike and 13mi run. • The Triathlon New Zealand National Series kicked off this past November with the first race at the World Triathlon Festival in New Plymouth. The series consist of 9 Olympic distance triathlon races around New Zealand. • The new race distance for the Triathlon One O One series is in between that of a half ironman triathlon race and a full ironman distance race. Basically, it’s 3/4 of an ironman distance race, with the total combined distance of 101 miles, the breakdown is 3km swim, 130km bike, 30km run (1.86mi swim, 80.6mi bike, 18.6mi run). The series will start off with 3 races this year (Florida, California, Nova Scotia) and have a championship race in November in Texas. The organizers plan on expanding the series to 20 triathlons in the future. • This will definitely compete against the World Triathlon Corporation’s sanctioned Ironman 70.3 races and Ironman races in North America this year as athletes find other long distance races to participate in. In a related note, the WTC expanded its Ironman 70.3 series with new triathlon races in Singapore, Australia, Austria, Switzerland and Newfoundland. They also added a new Ironman race to the schedule with the race in Louisville, Kentucky. • On the XTERRA side, Nissan will no longer be the title sponsor for the American tour and the World Championship races.
The popularity of our sport shows as new races have been added around the world. Here are just some of the new triathlon races for 2007.
New Triathlons in Asia
• Bali International Triathlon - Bali, Indonesia - June 24, 2007
• Ironman 70.3 Singapore - Singapore, Singapore - September 2, 2007
New Triathlons in Australia (Oceania)
• Challenge Queenstown - Wanaka, New Zealand - January 20, 2007
• Ironman 70.3 Australia - Port Macquarie, Australia - TBD
• Triathlon New Zealand National Series - various cities and dates around New Zealand
New Triathlons in Europe
• Blithfield Triathlon - Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire - August 26, 2007
• Ironman 70.3 Austria - St. Pölten, Austria - June 2, 2007
• Ironman 70.3 Switzerland - Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland - June 3, 2007
• XTERRA Austria - Klopeinersee, Carinthia, Austria - August 25, 2007 (no race in 2006)
• TriATHY - Athy, Ireland- June 2, 2007
New Triathlons in North America
• Big "O" Half Iron Triathlon - Olathe, KS - May 6, 2007
• Black Bear Triathlon - Beltzville, PA - June 3, 2007 (Half Iron & Sprint distance)
• HyVee Triathlon - ITU World Cup - Des Moines, IA - June 17, 2007
• Ironman Louisville - Louisville, KY - August 26, 2007
• Island Triathlon Series - Turks & Caicos - December 1, 2007
• Newfoundland Ironman 70.3 - Corner Brook, Newfoundland, Canada - July 29, 2007
• Pasadena Triathlon - Pasadena, CA - March 10, 2007
• Patriot Half Iron - Freetown, MA - July 1, 2007
• RYKA Iron Girl Atlanta Women's Triathlon - Atlanta, GA - June 17, 2007
• VikingMan Triathlon - Burley, ID - June 2, 2007
• Silverman added a Half Iron distance event - Henderson, NV - November 11, 2007
• Triathlon One O One - various cities and dates around the United States and Canada
• Victoria International Half-Iron Triathlon - Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, May 26, 2007
New Triathlons in South America
• XTERRA Argentina - Cordoba, Argentina - February 17, 2007
Comments (1)
Thanks for this list. This is my first year doing triathlons, so I can really use this post.
Thanks,
Scott Hughes
Posted by Scott Hughes | February 3, 2007 8:19 PM
Posted on February 3, 2007 20:19