supertri have wasted no time in releasing a very positive response following our article yesterday in which outgoing British Triathlon chief Andy Salmon called for greater collaboration around the calendar.
This year sees an expanded T100 series from the PTO and the new IRONMAN Pro Series. Plus the established WTCS and supertri – formerly Super League – short-course races in what’s an Olympic year. As well as Challenge Family’s extensive programme and much more.
It’s great news for professional athletes – the T100 and IRONMAN Pro Series in particular offer massively enhanced prizemoney – and fans alike.
‘Collaboration should be straightforward’
But Salmon, the CEO at British Triathlon for over six years, cautioned that athlete welfare has to be a top priority too and urged all parties to work together to make that happen.
While welcoming the increased opportunities and exposure for the sport, he told us: “My first concern is the athletes’ welfare. I want to see the PTO, Super League, World Triathlon, IRONMAN, Challenge – all the big players – get together annually and have what I would call a fixtures meeting and say, right, what are our schedules looking like? And agree on some principles that are fundamentally about the athletes’ best interests.”
Unprompted and within hours, supertri threw their support behind that suggestion.
They issued a statement last night UK time which read: “supertri fully supports the views of Andy Salmon that the wider triathlon community should come together to ensure a calendar of events that delivers for fans, professional athletes and the wider growth of the sport.
“supertri supports and echoes these views. In a period of significant investment in the sport, we must take this opportunity to align ourselves for the greater good of triathlon if it is to fulfil its incredible potential.
“We have a wide range of brands doing great things for triathlon, from focussing on media and viewership attention in both long and short course racing, growing participation in the sport and in World Triathlon working to develop the sport from the grassroots.
“While we all have our own targets and objectives there is little overlap and so collaboration should be straightforward if the will is there. We stand ready to commit to these discussions in good faith and for the greater good of the sport.”
Clash coming up!
We have since reached out to World Triathlon, the PTO, IRONMAN and Challenge Family for their responses and will also be talking to Salmon’s successor Ruth Daniels next week.
Hopefully this is the start of a collaborative initiative that ultimately grows the sport in everyone’s interests but before then we’ve got a weekend which kickstarts the WTCS season in Abu Dhabi and the PTO’s T100 in Miami.
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