Olympic stars Cassandre Beaugrand and Hayden Wilde have both been announced for the PTO’s latest ambitious venture – the short-course T1 Indoor Triathlon World Cup.
Reigning Olympic and World Champion Beaugrand and Wilde, a silver-medallist in Paris, will be the centre of attention at the new ultra-fast race announced two weeks ago, which takes just ten minutes to complete.
Their involvement is expected to drive interest in the unique format, which is a collaboration between the PTO, World Triathlon and the Indoor World Cup Lievin.
“It’s going to be wild”
The indoor, short-course race was announced by PTO in late January, with the T1 Indoor Triathlon World Cup set to be part of the World Triathlon Cup circuit.
Entirely live and indoors, the format features a 200m swim, 2.8km bike and 1km run, with both Wilde and Beaugrand taking to Instagram to express their excitement at the chance to take part in what will be one of the most unique races on the triathlon calendar on 22 March.
“I’m super excited to announce I’ll be racing,” Wilde said in an announcement video.
“Its going to be awesome, I’m looking forward to it, it’s going to be wild… also racing in front of my French team’s home town in Lievin.
“I’ve seen the atmosphere from last year, i’m really looking forward to getting amongst the action of the indoor racing. It looks epic, super fast and furious.”
“I am very happy to announce my participation in the Lievin World Cup, I hope to see many of you there!” French star Beaugrand echoed.
Her participation will come just two weeks prior to another appearance at an indoor race, namely the Supertri E World Triathlon Championship in London, which she won back in 2022.
$60,000 up for grabs
Beaugrand and Wilde will be part of an elite field featuring 120 men and women for the first T1 Indoor Triathlon World Cup.
Taking place in a knockout format, 12 athletes will compete in each heat before the semi-finals, repechage and finals where a prize purse of $60,000 is up for grabs along with the same ranking points (500 to the winners) as other Triathlon World Cups.
With the success of their inaugural T100 Triathlon World Tour, this latest project by the PTO is another attempt to further boost triathlon’s popularity. With the involvement of two big names in Beaugrand and Wilde and the competition’s quick, made-for-TV format, it’s easy to see why PTO CEO Sam Renouf is optimistic.
“When we launched the T100 Triathlon World Tour, our stated aim was to take triathlon into the mainstream,” Renouf said on launching the Indoor World Cup.
“We’ve seen huge progress in our inaugural year, surging past our previous broadcast records and growing our social media viewership to the largest in the sport, with over 500 million video views of our content last year.
“Our decision to participate in this developing fast and furious format of indoor racing lets us explore further partnership opportunities and seek to further promote triathlon and the incredible performances of its professional athletes.”
