Super League is back on Sunday: The Arena Games - Rotterdam - Elite News

Super League Triathlon to combine real life and virtual racing

SLT Arena Games makes its debut and you can watch it LIVE

Never let it be said that Super League Triathlon (www.superleaguetriathlon.com) are not prepared to try something new. Given the (coronavirus–impacted) events of 2020, like lots of other organisers, they have had to think on their feet in order to put on anything at all.

COVID-19 saw a huge growth in virtual racing, including a boom in Zwift racing online. The Zwift Z Pro Tri Race Series and the SLT eSports squad – amongst other examples – showed that live streaming and commentary of an avatar is a) possible, and b) perhaps surprisingly to many, pretty good viewing! In a time of zero live sport, including triathlon, it was all certainly very welcome.

SLT have now built upon that partnership with Zwift to put together a new concept which will take place on Sunday (23rd August) in Rotterdam – the SLT Arena Games.

Combining ‘real’ swimming – in the Olympic-size pool in Rotterdam – with Zwift cycling and running (on Tacx Neo2T smart trainers and self-powered curved treadmills, visualised via Zwift, allows a full triathlon to take place in one location, under COVID-secure rules, while also allowing a TV broadcast and hopefully plenty of interesting power, heart rate and speed data in real time.

Format

The Pro athletes will race SLT’s ‘Triple Mix’ format:

Stage 1: swim-bike-run
Stage 2: bike-run-swim
Stage 3: run-swim-bike

Leg distances will be 200m swim / 4km bike / 1km run, with a short break of a couple of minutes between each stage. Points are awarded 10 for first place down to one point for 10th, and cumulative total points determines the winners.

The Zwift course being used is Crit City, which many of the athletes will be familiar with already, it having been used several times during the Z Pro Series in recent weeks.

Who’s racing?

Given the restrictions on travel right now, it’s a very solid field – including the reigning IRONMAN World Champion (and former ITU Grand Final winner), Anne Haug, 5x World Champion Javier Gomez and Brits Jonanthan Brownlee, Jess Learmonth and Georgia Taylor-Brown.

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