The Executive Board of World Triathlon has decided to award the 2022 Cross Triathlon & Duathlon World Championships to Targu Mures, in Romania. The events have been part of the World Triathlon Multisport Festival for the past years and were planned to take place in Townsville, Australia, this year but Australia was not able to organise the Multisport Festival due to current travel restrictions in the region.
The 2022 World Triathlon Multisport Championships Targu Mures will take place this summer, from June 6 to June 12. The Duathlon World Championships will host Elite, U23, Junior, Para triathlon, Mixed Relay, Age Group standard and Age Group sprint distance races, while for the Cross Triathlon Elites, U23s, Junior, Para triathletes and Age Groupers will vie for world crowns.
In 2021, the Duathlon World Championships were organised in Aviles, Spain, while the Cross Triathlon World Championships took place in El Anillo, Spain, after Almere also was not able to organise these events due to travel restrictions.
“Targu Mures is one of the best places to race in Europe, and we are delighted to go back to Transylvania, this time for the Cross Triathlon and Duathlon World Championships”, said World Triathlon President and IOC member, Marisol Casado. “For us having hosts that offer a combination of great experience, dedicated team and welcoming cities is just perfect. I am sure that triathletes, friends and families will feel absolutely at home racing there”, she said.
Targu Mures has a great experience hosting multisport events, having hosted in 2019 the Multisport European Championships, as well as the Duathlon European Championships in 2021, 2019. The European Cross Triathlon Championships has been hosted in Targu Mures in 2016, 2017 & 2019.
World Triathlon will announce in the next weeks locations and dates for the other Multisport World Championships.
“It’s a pleasure and honor for our city to be a host of an event with this kind of reputation. We would really like to put back Targu Mures on the sports map of Romania and Europe, and these kind of events truly help us to achieve this”, said Zoltán Soós, mayor of Targu Mures city. “This is why we offered and offer continuously our full support to the local organisation committee. These international triathlon events help our community to enjoy and understand the importance of sports, also to improve our region’s tourism.”
The LOC got full support again from the County Council as well: “It is always a pleasure for us to organise such events in Mures county. To host a sport event with such a big importance can highlight our county’s touristic attractions, and also the modern and quality infrastructure which is necessary for organising these events. Mures County Council has always supported the triathlon sport events, and will also support it in the future.” - declared Péter Ferenc, president of the County Council.
“It is a big honor to host such a great event, our community has achieved the greatest challenge in the life of Romanian Triathlon and it’s the best way to keep up the legacy which Peter Klosz has created, with such a strong LOC crew, and location, which became really popular during the past few years. We are looking forward to welcome the triathletes from all around the world.” declared Vlad Stoica, president of the Romanian Triathlon Federation
Located in the Carpathian Mountains, the territory -also known for its Gothic castles and for being the home of Dracula- Transylvania’s forested valleys of Targu Mures offer a territory full of natural beauties and amazing flora and fauna. It represents also an extremely popular touristic attraction, and the city has proven multiple times that can welcome, accommodate and support large numbers of athletes, friends and families.