NEW SUPER LEAGUE LAUNCHED
New multi-format elite competition begins in Australia later this month
The Brownlee brothers, Spain’s Javier Gomez and reigning ITU world champion Mario Mola head a stellar cast for a new quickfire race series the organisers are heralding as the ‘future of triathlon’. Super League Triathlon, the brainchild of two-time Ironman world champion Chris McCormack and Russian billionaire businessman Leonid Boguslavsky, is a multi-format series where triathletes will compete for up to $1.5million in prize money.
The first event takes place on Hamilton Island close to Australia’s Great Barrier Reef from 17-19 March and will showcase three of five formats – the Triple Mix (17 March), Equalizer (18th) and Eliminator (19th). Triple Mix will see triathletes swim, bike, run, with a 10min break from the time of the first triathlete finishing. They’ll then run, bike, swim, followed by another 10min break, before a bike, swim, run completes the action. The winner is the triathlete with the lowest overall time.
Equaliser is a 6km time trial, with time gaps determining the starting order for a swim, run, swim triathlon that follows.
Eliminator is three consecutive swim, bike, run triathlons with the trailing nine eliminated after race one, five after race two, and the remaining 10 competing for victory. All consist of varying mixes of a 300m swim, 6km bike and 2km run. The action will be broadcast globally with UK viewers able to watch the two-hour show on Eurosport and live at superleaguetriathlon.com.
Taylor says the Hamilton Island event is a “stake in the ground” ahead of the full series that’ll run in the Asia-Pacific and Middle East regions from late October to March 2018. As well as prize money, triathletes are also contracted to take part, and although the fees are undisclosed at present, the plan is to follow the philosophy of Twenty20 cricket’s Indian Premier League, where marquee stars are signed for big money with much fanfare at the start of each season.
TRUE MULTISPORT
The initial three days of racing will be a 24-triathlete male-only event, with a 15-strong women’s line-up invited to join for the next leg in late October. With McCormack only formulating the idea last summer,
Taylor says the organisation didn’t have time to include a women’s competition for Hamilton Island.
There are also plans for age-group athletes to be part of the action with the Super League Triathlon 626 format – a 600m swim, 20km bike and 6km run – with destinations to be announced across the Asia-Pacific and Gulf regions.
While the hilly course should suit the Brownlees, temperatures of 35ºC in north-east Australia will be a tougher challenge. Both brothers have spectacularly overheated in the past, most notably in last year’s Grand Final in Cozumel when Alistair helped Jonny across the line in scenes that attracted a global audience.
“We’re bringing the world’s best athletes to compete on a brutal course and you’re going to see some serious pain,” McCormack says. “When this sport started it was about who could run, bike and swim, the fastest. It was never discussed in any order. By mixing up the formats we take away that predictability. It’s a true multisport athlete that’ll win this event. It focuses on what fans want to see.”
ABRASIVE RACING
McCormack was well known for an abrasive racing attitude that earned plenty of fans and foes, and he sees rivalries as an important part of making the new venture a success. “Don’t think for a second that it’s all happy families among our athletes,” he says. “We’ll highlight the personality clashes and intensity of a closed-league, big prize money series. We’ll be taking sports fans deeper into the inner sanctum than ever before.”
“Super League Triathlon will be exciting, dynamic racing and great viewing for all sports fans,” adds Ali Brownlee. “There’s a bit of chatter from the younger guys about the heat, the shorter distances, and a few of them fancy themselves for the win. While the formats are new and innovative, they’ve still got to swim, bike and run and they have to remember that their weaknesses will still be highlighted.”
The rat-a-tat format is a throwback to the days of the Formula One Triathlon Series in Australia that ran until 2004. In it, the likes of Mark Allen and Brad Beven would race ‘eyeballs out’ in Speedos at iconic locations in front of large television audiences.
As for the live coverage, the teaser trailer suggests the broadcast coverage will be a cut above triathlon’s usual fare, and McCormack is always engaging on screen… and the Super League is typical Macca. An unashamed, bullish approach to drag triathlon into the mainstream. Here’s hoping it’s the antithesis of the cut-price nutrition brand he recently launched, Bollox Nutrition.
We’ll be taking sports fans deeper into the inner sanctum than ever before