In less than two months, Madrid will be the focal point for the world of triathlon. On Saturday May 30 and 31, the ‘Casa de Campo’ will host the second Dextro Energy Triathlon-ITU World Championship Series event for the world’s top triathletes. The official web for the competition will be available shortly.
After successfully organizing the World Cup on six different occasions, Madrid will, for the first time, host the World Championship Series featuring a new format, consisting of seven events plus a Grand Final. The first event will take place on May 2 and 3 in Tongyeong (South Korea) followed by Madrid, the first European event of the circuit.
The competitors will cover 1.5 km. swimming in the lake (two laps), 40 km. cycling (eight laps including the Teleférico climb with a 12% difference in height over 400 metres) and the 10 km. running (four laps).
One of the main innovations with regard to the World Cups held in Madrid from 2003 to 2008 is that the women’s race will be taking place on Saturday May 30, and the men’s race on Sunday 31; in other words, the elite program will no longer be compressed into a single morning and fans will be able to enjoy each race fully over two days.
The weekend program will also include other competitions in the Casa de Campo: a qualifying race for the Age Group ITU Triathlon World Championships (which will also qualify for the Age Group Spanish Triathlon Championships), a qualifying race for the Elite Spanish Triathlon Championships and a Popular Relay Triathlon.
Following the Madrid event, which will be sponsored by the Madrid Town Council and the Madrid-16 Olympic Candidacy, the Washington D.C. (U.S.A.), Kitzbühel (Austria), Hamburg (Germany), London (England), Yokohama (Japan) and Gold Coast (Australia) championships will take place in accordance with the schedule set out hereunder. The Gold Coast Championship will include the Grand Final from September 9 to 13. The economic assignment for the competition amounts to 2 million U.S. dollars.
The world champions will collect a final prize of 700.000 U.S. dollars, three times as much as in previous years. Each event in the World Series will be provided with prizes of 150,000 U.S. dollars, and the Grand Final with 250,000 U.S. dollars.
With this new format, the ITU wants to ensure that the world’s top triathletes compete with each other. Each Dextro Energy Triathlon-ITU World Championship Series event will have high-definition international live television coverage.
Thus, the World Championship has developed into a circuit competition composed of eight events which will bestow points resulting in a final ranking (and is no longer a single-day event as up to now) and, therefore, the champions will be those athletes who accumulate the most points at the end of the eight events. The Dextro Energy Triathlon-ITU World Championship Series Grand Final will feature more points at stake than other event.