It’s launched an innovative ‘short chute’, is giving short shrift to conventional triathlon wisdom, and will be hosting its first grand final in Singapore this coming weekend. Super League Triathlon has arrived as multisport’s brash new kid on the block and whether a flash in the pan or the future of swim, bike, run, the weekend’s action in the Far East should be another yardstick for its evolution.
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Ahead of the action, 220 Triathlon columnist Tim Heming caught up with its figurehead, the multiple triathlon world champion, Chris McCormack, in Thailand to find out what to expect…
220: How are the preparations going for Singapore?
CM: It’s difficult to deliver events of this magnitude in Asia, but we’re building a nice level of excitement in a region of the world that isn’t dominant in triathlon. Singapore is the most modern city on the planet, but it’s so organised it has a lot of red tape that can delay things longer than other cities we’ve dealt with.
220: What about the course itself?
CM: The venue is magnificent. A mile from the city centre on the private island of Sentosa. If you’re a billionaire and live in Asia, you’ve got a home in Sentosa. It’s home to super yachts. We’re trying to deliver the events around marinas and attach triathlon to that demographic.
The course is relatively flat with four technical left-hand turns. Everyone thinks you need hills, but like any good crit, you can make a parking lot difficult – with wide entries into corners and narrow exits that line athletes out. We pride ourselves on producing challenging courses. In Mallorca, Alistair Brownlee made a lot of changes to the top part of the bike course and that did a lot of damage [to break up the racing].
220: France’s Vincent Luis and USA’s Katie Zafares have healthy leads in the series, but do they have the overall titles wrapped up?
CM: With double points available, both athletes have to be on their game. If Vincent finishes third or fourth, Henri [Schoeman], Richard [Murray] or Jonny [Brownlee] could still win. It’s still wide open. We’re talking about what system we’ll move towards for next season and whether we stay with points or change to accumulated time. We want to make sure that unlike other series, Super League comes down to the final event and there are multiple triathletes who can still win.
220: Has anything surprised you in Super League’s short history?
CM: We knew it was going to be a big workload, but trying to build a worldwide series is tough. We based a lot of the concept on the Formula 1 series in Australia in the 90s, and if we were only delivering this in Australia it’d be a breeze. The biggest difficulty has been how different cities do things.
From an athlete perspective, I’m surprised at the discrepancy in skillsets, chiefly bike handling and transition skills. The top triathletes are very good, but the drop-off is massive. It’ll take one or two seasons, but I believe you’ll be able to tell the difference between those athletes that have done Super League and those that haven’t. After all, we’re running triathletes through transition 20 times over the weekend.
220: From a British standpoint, Jonny Brownlee probably had the worst season of his career in 2018, but looked reinvigorated by Super League in Malta and Mallorca…
CM: I’d agree. In Jersey, he didn’t seem to have the same look in his eyes as he did in Malta and Mallorca. Some silly mistakes cost him in Malta, but in Mallorca, when he took the short chute in the last race [in an attempt to beat Vincent Luis], all bets were off. That said a lot. He’s understandably keen to make 2019 a big season with the Tokyo Olympics next year, and needs to get his head around racing in hot conditions so has been over here training in Phuket.
220: Do you have venues secured for next season?
CM: We have qualification events in Bali, Poznan and Ottawa, and Penticton might be an age-group only race. Then we’ll return to Jersey, Malta and Mallorca, we’re speaking to Singapore again and we’re close to signing off in Shanghai, Dubai and Belgium.
220: How are revenues generated?
It’s mainly advertising. A big portion is corporate hospitality, but we don’t make anything out of TV revenue as we’re building an audience and continuing to work on the product. I don’t think we’re there yet. For example, we only went to two days of racing because of [the opening showcase event on] Hamilton Island where the athletes said it was fantastic. I’d always imagined having just one day. We’re thinking of maybe having heats and a final, but we’re still trying to refine that.
220: How viable is age-group racing in the Super League formats?
CM: We have the corporate experience of ‘Racing Like A Pro’, with 50 teams of six-to-12 paying £20,000. That sells out. It’s a no-brainer. For the age-groupers, we’re moving to an enduro type format – swim, bike, run, swim, bike, run – but we’re not looking to get rich from mass participation.
Unfortunately, Ironman has created a perception that people only race two to three times a year, but for 80 bucks you can come and do a Super League event. Poznan had 4,000 taking part, 2,000 in the enduro, plus a conventional sprint triathlon and fun runs. We want to build festivals. Ten to 15 years ago, people identified by a sport, but now they might do a Tough Mudder one weekend and then a triathlon the next. If it’s cool, you’ll do it.
220: Finally, how do you see the future for Super League?
CM: After Singapore, we’ll set up offices in London, and our ultimate aim is to have a grand final with athletes qualifying from European, Australasian and American leagues. We’d take the 10 best triathletes from each league and have five days or two/three weekends of racing in a grand finale that has big bucks on it – whether that’s in Dubai or Bahrain or wherever. That’d be the perfect scenario.
We would like to move our series closer to launching in late August/early September and finish within the calendar year. That’s what the TV networks would prefer too. But I’ve always wanted to create a professional landscape and not inhibit triathletes’ aspirations to win Olympic gold medals, so we’ve tried to communicate openly with the ITU and position events around their calendar, not encroach.
I think this style of racing is the direction the ITU wants to go and for a TV product you have to go this way. From the Nielsen [media coverage] reports we can see that 4.5 million watched the series. Our best viewing figures were in France and the UK. For perspective, 75,000 watched Ironman live at the world championship and its NBC highlights coverage was the lowest viewed ever at under 1 million. Triathletes are always happy to eat the crumbs that other sports drop, but it’s a beautiful sport people can relate to and by creating characters we can build audiences. The numbers to get to are not so high any more either. Sports viewing is not decreasing, it’s just that people have more options.
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The Super League Triathlon Grand Finale will take place on 23-24 February in Singapore. You can follow the action at superleaguetriathlon.com. Check out the next issue of 220, on sale 21 February, for an Insider’s Guide to Super League Triathlon.
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It all kicked off a few days after Ironman Wales in 2016. I was still feeling ropey, so I went to the doctors and got whisked off to hospital with pneumonia and sepsis. I wasn’t quite expecting that. I was in there for four days, pumped full of antibiotics, but then they found a residual shadow on my lung so they did some x-rays.
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After that, they sent me for some scans to try and find out more about this shadow. Lesions were spotted everywhere. It seemed they had been there for the year leading up to the Ironman, but any aches, pains or fatigue I had, I just put down to the training.
After blood tests in March 2017, I was diagnosed with myeloma, a type of blood cancer. I’ve been given seven years to live unless I can find a stem cell match, and it’s been constant cycles of chemotherapy.
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I went from the high of Ironman Wales to being incarcerated in the Christie [Hospital]. I’ve been trying to maintain fitness throughout, so they brought in an exercise bike. I can swim and cycle but no running, because I broke a vertebra in my back – a side effect is weak bones.
I’d never heard of myeloma, so when my doctor told me I had it, I said “Can it be cleared with antibiotics?” Then he explained…
In a strange way, I was lucky, because with myeloma it’s usual to ignore the signs, then get kidney failure because your bones are being broken down by cancer, leading to high levels of calcium in your blood. So, in a way, Ironman helped me get my diagnosis expedited.
The first round of chemo I had didn’t work, and the second and third stopped working. I had a stem cell transplant too, which got me to a position where I feel good, but there’s only so many treatments and drugs I can use – a stem cell donor is crucial for me to stay alive.
I’ve turned this into something proactive – I started the campaign of 10,000 donors to try and get people registered on the stem cell register and raise awareness.
People who do triathlon are all of a certain mindset and there’s a proactive and positive approach to keep pushing the boundaries. When you’re surrounded by people like that, they keep you going.
I love triathlon because it made me achieve something I didn’t think I could do. I think the fitter you are, the quicker you get through these things. They usually predict a six-month recovery after the stem cell transplant, and I managed to get around the Weymouth bike course in a relay not long after.
You can register as a potential lifesaver online at dkms.org.uk and receive your home swab kit.
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Peter McCleave
After competing in Ironman Wales in 2016, Peter was diagnosed with an incurable blood cancer called myeloma; doctors estimated he had seven years to live unless a stem cell donor was found. After repeated rounds of chemotherapy, and stem cell transplants, Peter is campaigning to raise awareness and encourage more people to sign up to the register to save lives, like his own.
It all kicked off a few days after Ironman Wales in 2016. I was still feeling ropey, so I went to the doctors and got whisked off to hospital with pneumonia and sepsis. I wasn’t quite expecting that. I was in there for four days, pumped full of antibiotics, but then they found a residual shadow on my lung so they did some x-rays.
Advertisement
After that, they sent me for some scans to try and find out more about this shadow. Lesions were spotted everywhere. It seemed they had been there for the year leading up to the Ironman, but any aches, pains or fatigue I had, I just put down to the training.
After blood tests in March 2017, I was diagnosed with myeloma, a type of blood cancer. I’ve been given seven years to live unless I can find a stem cell match, and it’s been constant cycles of chemotherapy.
I went from the high of Ironman Wales to being incarcerated in the Christie [Hospital]. I’ve been trying to maintain fitness throughout, so they brought in an exercise bike. I can swim and cycle but no running, because I broke a vertebra in my back – a side effect is weak bones.
I’d never heard of myeloma, so when my doctor told me I had it, I said “Can it be cleared with antibiotics?” Then he explained…
In a strange way, I was lucky, because with myeloma it’s usual to ignore the signs, then get kidney failure because your bones are being broken down by cancer, leading to high levels of calcium in your blood. So, in a way, Ironman helped me get my diagnosis expedited.
The first round of chemo I had didn’t work, and the second and third stopped working. I had a stem cell transplant too, which got me to a position where I feel good, but there’s only so many treatments and drugs I can use – a stem cell donor is crucial for me to stay alive.
I’ve turned this into something proactive – I started the campaign of 10,000 donors to try and get people registered on the stem cell register and raise awareness.
People who do triathlon are all of a certain mindset and there’s a proactive and positive approach to keep pushing the boundaries. When you’re surrounded by people like that, they keep you going.
I love triathlon because it made me achieve something I didn’t think I could do. I think the fitter you are, the quicker you get through these things. They usually predict a six-month recovery after the stem cell transplant, and I managed to get around the Weymouth bike course in a relay not long after.
You can register as a potential lifesaver online at dkms.org.uk and receive your home swab kit.
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Peter McCleave
After competing in Ironman Wales in 2016, Peter was diagnosed with an incurable blood cancer called myeloma; doctors estimated he had seven years to live unless a stem cell donor was found. After repeated rounds of chemotherapy, and stem cell transplants, Peter is campaigning to raise awareness and encourage more people to sign up to the register to save lives, like his own.
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On 29 March 2019, the Brownlee brothers will be formally opening the UK’s largest triathlon show, Triathlon Show: London, at the Dockland’s ExCeL Centre. The show caters for swimmers, cyclists, runners and triathletes with 100’s of exhibitors.
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The performance stage line up
Got tickets for the Friday? Don’t miss Alistair and Jonny talking to 220‘s editor Helen Webster at 12pm on the performance stage. They will be followed on the stage by Dirty Sanchez star Matthew Pritchard, who will be speaking about his journey from extreme partying to extreme triathlon. Then at 3pm Helen will be talking to Greg Whyte, a professor in Applied Sport & Exercise Science and the man behind many of Comic Relief’s challenges.
Heading there Saturday? Helen will be chatting to four-time Kona champ Chrissie Wellington at 1pm and BBC presenter and Team GB triathlete Louise Minchin.
220 Expert Stage
Meanwhile the line-up on the 220 expert stage includes top tri coaches Joe Beer and Mark Kleanthous, hydration expert Andy Blow, Paralympic gold medallist Andy Lewis, 220‘s columnist Martyn Brunt, and rising ITU star Georgia Taylor-Brown.
And while you’re there don’t forget to check out all the latest tri kit. So many of us order our tri kit online without seeing it in person beforehand. Triathlon Show: London gives athletes the opportunity to have a good look at the latest kit and triathlon products and ask the expert representatives from each brand any questions they may have. If you’re going there to specifically look for new kit, check out our triathlon gear buying guides first.
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The show runs at London’s Excel Centre from Friday 29 to Sunday 31 March. Read more about the show here and click this link to get your discounted entry tickets.
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On 29 March 2019, the Brownlee brothers will be formally opening the UK’s largest triathlon show, Triathlon Show: London, at the Dockland’s ExCeL Centre. The show caters for swimmers, cyclists, runners and triathletes with 100’s of exhibitors.
Advertisement
The performance stage line up
Got tickets for the Friday? Don’t miss Alistair and Jonny talking to 220‘s editor Helen Webster at 12pm on the performance stage. They will be followed on the stage by Dirty Sanchez star Matthew Pritchard, who will be speaking about his journey from extreme partying to extreme triathlon. Then at 3pm Helen will be talking to Greg Whyte, a professor in Applied Sport & Exercise Science and the man behind many of Comic Relief’s challenges.
Heading there Saturday? Helen will be chatting to four-time Kona champ Chrissie Wellington at 1pm and BBC presenter and Team GB triathlete Louise Minchin.
220 Expert Stage
Meanwhile the line-up on the 220 expert stage includes top tri coaches Joe Beer and Mark Kleanthous, hydration expert Andy Blow, Paralympic gold medallist Andy Lewis, 220‘s columnist Martyn Brunt, and rising ITU star Georgia Taylor-Brown.
Click Here: liverpool mens jersey
And while you’re there don’t forget to check out all the latest tri kit. So many of us order our tri kit online without seeing it in person beforehand. Triathlon Show: London gives athletes the opportunity to have a good look at the latest kit and triathlon products and ask the expert representatives from each brand any questions they may have. If you’re going there to specifically look for new kit, check out our triathlon gear buying guides first.
Advertisement
The show runs at London’s Excel Centre from Friday 29 to Sunday 31 March. Read more about the show here and click this link to get your discounted entry tickets.
Britain’s Alex Yee finished second to world champion Mario Mola of Spain as the ITU World Series kicked off in high-octane style on the Formula One track of Abu Dhabi.
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It was an impressive debut at the top level from the 21-year-old Yee, who trains in Leeds and had already showed his class by winning a second tier World Cup race in Cape Town, also over the sprint distance, last month.
But it still wasn’t quite enough to defeat Mola, who has won the past three world titles, and once again showed why his biggest strength is the run. The 29-year-old surged to the front with 1.7km remaining and eased clear of Yee in the final stretch to take the tape in 52min.
“It’s above and beyond what I expected,” Yee said, having run 14:07 for the 5km. “I came in wanting to get a bit of experience, but I felt really prepared and ready to go and give it my best shot. These guys are my idols, and I look up to them and have watched them since I was a kid.”
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Mola recorded his 16th World Series victory and was generous with his praise for the young Brit, who has recovered from a near career-ending bike crash when racing in Calgary in 2017.
“I had to dig deep to bridge the gap,” he said. “I know how talented Alex is and it was great to have a battle against him. It’s great to have a new generation coming up.”
What made Yee’s result even more impressive was the quality of the field assembled in the Emirates’ capital.
The entire top 10 from last year’s ranking were present, with newly crowned Super League champion Vincent Luis and last year’s Commonwealth gold medallist Henri Schoeman among them. Double-Olympic medallist Jonny Brownlee was the only notable absentee.
While Slovakian Richard Varga predictably led out of the water after the 750m swim, the race came together on the 20km cycle around the Yas Marina F1 track and a large pack entered T2 together.
New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde bravely took the race by its scruff and forged a six-second gap that he held until midway through the run, when first Yee and then Mola took charge.
Spain’s Fernando Alarza sprinted from the chasing pack to take the final spot on the podium, with Britain’s only other competitor, Tom Bishop – on a course where he had his best WTS finish of second in 2017 – finishing strongly in ninth, one place ahead of an exhausted Wilde.
There is now a six-week break before the World Series resumes in Bermuda for the second of eight events.
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You can follow all the action live, plus re-live past races, highlights and interviews at triathlonlive.tv
Britain’s Alex Yee finished second to world champion Mario Mola of Spain as the ITU World Series kicked off in high-octane style on the Formula One track of Abu Dhabi.
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It was an impressive debut at the top level from the 21-year-old Yee, who trains in Leeds and had already showed his class by winning a second tier World Cup race in Cape Town, also over the sprint distance, last month.
But it still wasn’t quite enough to defeat Mola, who has won the past three world titles, and once again showed why his biggest strength is the run. The 29-year-old surged to the front with 1.7km remaining and eased clear of Yee in the final stretch to take the tape in 52min.
“It’s above and beyond what I expected,” Yee said, having run 14:07 for the 5km. “I came in wanting to get a bit of experience, but I felt really prepared and ready to go and give it my best shot. These guys are my idols, and I look up to them and have watched them since I was a kid.”
Mola recorded his 16th World Series victory and was generous with his praise for the young Brit, who has recovered from a near career-ending bike crash when racing in Calgary in 2017.
“I had to dig deep to bridge the gap,” he said. “I know how talented Alex is and it was great to have a battle against him. It’s great to have a new generation coming up.”
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What made Yee’s result even more impressive was the quality of the field assembled in the Emirates’ capital.
The entire top 10 from last year’s ranking were present, with newly crowned Super League champion Vincent Luis and last year’s Commonwealth gold medallist Henri Schoeman among them. Double-Olympic medallist Jonny Brownlee was the only notable absentee.
While Slovakian Richard Varga predictably led out of the water after the 750m swim, the race came together on the 20km cycle around the Yas Marina F1 track and a large pack entered T2 together.
New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde bravely took the race by its scruff and forged a six-second gap that he held until midway through the run, when first Yee and then Mola took charge.
Spain’s Fernando Alarza sprinted from the chasing pack to take the final spot on the podium, with Britain’s only other competitor, Tom Bishop – on a course where he had his best WTS finish of second in 2017 – finishing strongly in ninth, one place ahead of an exhausted Wilde.
There is now a six-week break before the World Series resumes in Bermuda for the second of eight events.
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You can follow all the action live, plus re-live past races, highlights and interviews at triathlonlive.tv
Third-place Jess Learmonth led the British charge in the first World Series race of the season as Non Stanford, Vicky Holland and Georgie Taylor-Brown also finished in the top 10.
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USA’s Katie Zafares, who finished runner-up to Holland in last year’s World Series, sealed a commanding victory in Abu Dhabi by breaking clear on the 5km run.
With her compatriot Taylor Spivey in second, it was left for Learmonth to out-sprint Under-23 world champion Taylor Knibb to stop a US podium sweep.
“I thought I’d shove ‘em out, “Learmonth joked. “She [Knibb] kept pushing and I thought it was going to come to a sprint finish. I thought: ‘She’s a young buck, she’s not 30-odd, she’ll get me, so I’ll have to push on to getaway.’
“We were working really hard [on the bike]. I’m glad that finally we had a breakaway that worked. I’ve got to be honest, I hadn’t aimed for this race. I’ve had a bit of a bad lead-up and I said I’m just going to get round. It’s a big year for selection and the girls are so strong so I’m just going to take it a race at a time.”
After Learmonth had led out of the water in the 750m swim, a front group that was eventually whittled down to six opened an insurmountable 65sec gaps on the main pack over the 20km bike course.
Even for the calibre of France’s Cassandra Beaugrand and Stanford, it was always going to be too much of a gap and the ever-consistent Zafares, who had stood 17 times on the World Series podium, but only once on the top step, ran clear to win by 26sec in 55min 31sec.
The American also clocked the fastest 5km run leg with a time of 16:09. It was 2sec faster than Stanford, who having left Leeds to join Canadian Joel Filliol’s training group will be encouraged by her start to the World Series. India Lee was the final British competitor in 26th.
There is now a six-week break before the World Series resumes in Bermuda for the second of eight events.
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You can follow all the action live, plus re-live past races, highlights and interviews at triathlonlive.tv
Third-place Jess Learmonth led the British charge in the first World Series race of the season as Non Stanford, Vicky Holland and Georgie Taylor-Brown also finished in the top 10.
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USA’s Katie Zafares, who finished runner-up to Holland in last year’s World Series, sealed a commanding victory in Abu Dhabi by breaking clear on the 5km run.
With her compatriot Taylor Spivey in second, it was left for Learmonth to out-sprint Under-23 world champion Taylor Knibb to stop a US podium sweep.
“I thought I’d shove ‘em out, “Learmonth joked. “She [Knibb] kept pushing and I thought it was going to come to a sprint finish. I thought: ‘She’s a young buck, she’s not 30-odd, she’ll get me, so I’ll have to push on to getaway.’
“We were working really hard [on the bike]. I’m glad that finally we had a breakaway that worked. I’ve got to be honest, I hadn’t aimed for this race. I’ve had a bit of a bad lead-up and I said I’m just going to get round. It’s a big year for selection and the girls are so strong so I’m just going to take it a race at a time.”
After Learmonth had led out of the water in the 750m swim, a front group that was eventually whittled down to six opened an insurmountable 65sec gaps on the main pack over the 20km bike course.
Even for the calibre of France’s Cassandra Beaugrand and Stanford, it was always going to be too much of a gap and the ever-consistent Zafares, who had stood 17 times on the World Series podium, but only once on the top step, ran clear to win by 26sec in 55min 31sec.
The American also clocked the fastest 5km run leg with a time of 16:09. It was 2sec faster than Stanford, who having left Leeds to join Canadian Joel Filliol’s training group will be encouraged by her start to the World Series. India Lee was the final British competitor in 26th.
There is now a six-week break before the World Series resumes in Bermuda for the second of eight events.
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You can follow all the action live, plus re-live past races, highlights and interviews at triathlonlive.tv
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Commonwealth champions Australia underlined their mixed relay credentials with victory on the opening World Series weekend, as Britain’s quartet toiled home in seventh.
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Despite having two debutants in their line-up, Jake Birtwhistle, fast becoming a relay specialist, brought the Aussies to the tape in Abu Dhabi, having caught USA’s Eli Hemming on the final bike leg and eased clear on the 1,500m run.
New Zealand finished in third, with Alex Yee, runner-up in the individual contest yesterday, running Britain up to seventh, 68sec adrift of the winners.
Over a 300m swim, 7.6km bike and 1.5km run course, Britain, who were led off by Vicky Holland struggled to make an impact throughout.
The race was split early as USA’s Taylor Spivey biked clear on the first leg to build an 18sec lead into T2, with Australia’s Ashleigh Gentle pegging back most of the deficit on the run.
Germany and Italy then joined the USA’s Ben Kanute and Australia’s Luke Willian to form a front pack of four, with Tom Bishop battling to keep Britain in the top 10.
Kanute and Willian broke free on the run to give Katie Zafares and Emma Jeffcoat some breathing space on the changeover, with Zafares superior footspeed giving the Americans a 17sec lead on to the final leg.
That was soon whittled away though as Birtwhistle caught Hemming, and the former track ace was dominant over the final 1.5km to take the tape.
“We’ve never used this team before, but once again we’ve come out and won the race,” Birtwhistle said. “It’s great for us all and great for triathlon in Australia.”
A strong second half of the race by Leonie Periault and Leo Bergere had put reigning world champions France clear in third, but with Bergere having to stand down for a penalty, New Zealand’s Hayden Wilde ran through for the bronze. Non Stanford and Yee rounded out the British effort, but it never looked enough to challenge the podium.
The first of four mixed relays in the 2019 World Series, Abu Dhabi will be followed by Nottingham (June), Edmonton (July) and Grand Final in Lausanne (August).
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To watch all the coverage live, plus highlights, race re-runs and interviews, visit triathlonlive.tv
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