The World Triathlon Executive Board has approved the awarding of the 2021 World Triathlon Cross Championships to El Anillo de Extremadura, in Spain. World Champions in all categories, including age-group events, will now be crowned on 30-31 October.

“It is a pleasure for us to return to Anillo de Extremadura, the venue of the first ever Cross Triathlon World Championships and a perfect place that we know that has all the capabilities to host a wonderful event. The commitment of this region towards sustainability, sport and tourism will make sure that, once again, these World Championships provide a perfect destination not only for the athletes, but also for their entourage, friends and family to enjoy all that Extremadura has to offer the triathlon community”, said World Triathlon President and IOC member, Marisol Casado.

This will be the third time that Spain has hosted the Cross Triathlon World Championships, with Extremadura hosting the first edition in 2011, and Pontevedra playing host for the previous edition as part of the World Triathlon Multisport Festival.

The World Triathlon Cross Championship has been part of the Multisport Festival for the last five years and was planned in 2021 to take place in Almere, but due to the current travel restrictions in the Netherlands, the organisers there are only able to host the Long Distance and Aquabike events. The 2021 World Triathlon Duathlon World Championships will take place in Aviles (Spain) on 6-7 November.

World Triathlon wants to thank the organisers and the Spanish Triathlon Federation for being able to step up once again and put in place a world-class event in such a short period of time after Almere confirmed they could not host the Cross Triathlon event this year.

The event will be run under strict COVID guidelines approved by the Spanish Federation and World Triathlon, and more details of the calendar, distances and registration process will be announced in the coming weeks.