World Triathlon

While the ITU Triathlon World Cup Series is just getting started down under, the Winter Triathlon season is about to reach its peak in snowy Scandinavia with the 2011 ITU Winter Triathlon World Championships. The World Championships in Jämijärvi, Finland are the climax of the Winter Triathlon series, which has been running over the Northern Hemisphere winter. The event is the first time that Finland will host an ITU World Championship event.

STORIES TO WATCH FOR

OPEN SLATHER FOR WOMEN – The Women’s field is set to be close, with 14 of the world’s best winter triathletes to line-up at the start. Sarka Grabmullerova (CZE) is currently ranked as the top ITU Winter Triathlon World Cup athlete, but it was Norway’s Borghild Lovset ranked second, who beat Grabmullerova to the line for gold in last weekend’s 2011 Ostersund ETU Winter Triathlon European Championships. It wasn’t a small margin either, Grabmullerova won by 1minute35 seconds. Other contenders will be Tatiana Charochkina (RUS), who finished in third at the European Championships last week, and Giuliana Lamastra (ITA), who is ranked eighth in the world cup standings.  But don’t discount the non-Europeans in the field, particularly after last year’s result when American Rebecca Dussault became the first non-European women in win a Winter Tri world title.

SVANEBO THE MAN TO BEAT – Reigning men’s champion Andreas Svanebo of Sweden, who ended Norway’s four-year run of world title wins last year, is currently ranked first in the ITU Winter Triathlon World Cup series. But Russian Pavel Andreev is hitting form at exactly the right time, he beat Svanebo to the line by 40seconds to win last weekend’s European title.  Others to watch include two-time World Champion Sigi Bauer (AUT), ranked second in the overall standings, and 2009 bronze medalist Daniel Antonioli (ITA), currently ranked fourth.  Bauer is an accomplished multidiscipline triathlete, he also competed in the 2009 and 2010 ITU Duathlon World Championships. Bauer won his two Winter Triathlon world titles in 2004 and 2005. A total of 25 athletes are expected to compete for world Winter Tri men’s title.

THE ITU AND WINTER TRIATHLON

Winter Triathlon is a multi-discipline winter sport composed of running, mountain biking and cross country skiing - all on snow.  Course distances are set on the day to achieve a winning time of around 80-90 minutes, after taking into account the geography and the snow conditions.  The 2011 ITU World Championships will be decided across a 6km Run, 11.4km Mountain Bike and 10km Cross Country Ski.

ITU has been long committed to the development of the Winter Triathlon.  Athletes are vying for a bonus pool of $10,000 USD at this end of the series.  For European athletes competing in European Cups, an additional 5,000 EUR bonus pool is up for grabs.  Inclusion of Winter Triathlon in the Winter Olympic Games programme is ITU’s long-term dream and showing it’s importance to the federation, ITU President and IOC Member Marisol Casado will attend the event this weekend.

Competition Schedule:

• Elite Men: 10:00 a.m. Saturday, 26 March 2011
• Elite Women: 10:30 a.m. Saturday, 26 March 2011

Elite Race Format:

• 6k Run, 11.4k Mountain Bike and 10k Cross Country Ski

Start List:

• Women
• Men

Official website:

• www.jamitri.com/

Click here to see further race information.

ITU Winter Triathlon World Champions (1997-2010)