CHANGES FOR LEEDS
Alterations made for 2017 after controversial age-group debut
Entries are now open for the age-group ITU World Triathlon Leeds races in Yorkshire ( 10-11 June), with more than 5,000 age-groupers expected to participate over the weekend.
The two days of racing kick off at Roundhay Park with the beginner-friendly GO TRI event on the Saturday. On Sunday the elite ITU races – expected to feature the Brownlee brothers – take place, along with both sprint- and standard-distance events and the relay options.
The organisers have also confirmed that the Leeds event will include the British Standard Distance Triathlon Championships for 2017. The race is moving from its former venue, Liverpool, where it has been held for the past four years. “After four fantastically memorable years at Tri Liverpool, we have decided to move the British Standard Distance Triathlon Championships to the heartland of the sport in 2017,” said Jack Buckner, British Triathlon’s chief executive.
For spectators watching live and on television, the Leeds event’s debut in 2016 was memorable for the heroics of the Brownlees in the men’s elite race, and the battle between eventual winner Gwen Jorgensen and Flora Duffy in the women’s. Yet for many age-group competitors the day was marred by organisational problems and poor communication from the race organisers, a partnership between British Triathlon, Leeds City Council, UK Sport and ITU/Ironman under the Lagardère Sports umbrella.
The major problems centred around the split Roundhay Park/city centre transition, the most serious of the issues being the long delay in the post-race drops of bags containing warm clothing. Thankfully, for 2017 the organisers will stick to a single transition in Roundhay Park, the venue of the swim leg. The bike course has also been changed (though is yet to be finalised), with the run leg taking athletes from T2 in Roundhay Park into Leeds’ city centre’s Millennium Square.
British Triathlon says full details of the new course and ‘additional improvements to the event experience following feedback from 2016 participants’ will be announced in the coming months at leeds.triathlon.org.
The federation has also confirmed the rest of its Major Events for the 2017 season. The Bedford Autodrome Duathlon will kick things off on 9 April with the British Duathlon Championships before the Strathclyde Park Multisport Festival hosts the Sprint Distance Triathlon Championships on 27 May. After Leeds, the Middle Distance Triathlon Championships will be held at the ever-popular Vitruvian Triathlon on 9 September at Rutland Water in Leicestershire.