TA to chase venue

Gold Coast loses ITU leg in 2019

TRIATHLON Australia will actively pursue a venue for an Australian leg of the world series, with the Gold Coast off the circuit next year.

While the Coast hosted more than 5000 athletes over the weekend in age group and paratriathlon world championships, as well as the elite World Triathlon Series grand finals, the city will not host an event in 2019, missing out for the first time since 2014.

While a World Cup event will again be held at Mooloolaba, no Australian city will feature on the elite circuit.

TA chief executive Miles Stewart said he would love to see the event return to the Coast.

But if that was not possible, another venue would be sought, with a local WTS race vital for Australian athletes looking to quality for the Olympics.

“Clearly for us we’d love to see a WTS race here forever but it’s not always possible,” Stewart said. “We’ve got a World Cup in Mooloolaba … but we are certainly actively trying to find wither another venue or another way that we can start resurrecting the (Gold Coast) race.

“It’s such an iconic event on the world calendar and you can see from all the countries that are represented they love coming and doing this event. If there’s any way we can do it again, we’ll be back.”

But with plans to build a playground at the northern end of the Broadwater Parklands, fitting the infrastructure needed for a major event the size of the WTS grand final in the space again could be difficult.

Stewart, a Gold Coast product who won his own world championship in the city in 1991, said it would be a shame after the Commonwealth Games not to be able to continue to hold major events on the Coast.

“When you have a legacy of the Commonwealth Games here, you’d like to think the ongoing legacy is that you can use the venue into the future,” he said.

“There’s a whole lot of things in play in those decisions and we understand those but I think sport is getting harder and harder to run, particularly in city areas.

“It’s not easy to find triathlon courses this nice and this close to the CBD and the ability to shut down the roads and put them on.”

Regardless of where in Australia the event is held in the future, TA will “actively pursue” a venue.