Challenge Family moves THE CHAMPIONSHIP to August 2021

THECHAMPIONSHIP expands Collins Cup weekend in Šamorín

Event calendar reorganisation continues for a second (COVID-impacted) year, with confirmation that Challenge Family’s ‘THE CHAMPIONSHIP’ has been pushed back from its original scheduled date of May 23rd, to Sunday 29th August.

In doing so, we actually get back to what was the original plan for 2020, of the event falling on the same weekend as The Collins Cup debut, which has already announced its move to August.

Starting in 2017, the event has produced some truly memorable races, with some epic battles between Lionel Sanders and Sebastian Kienle, plus Lucy Charles winning all three editions to date. I’ve had the pleasure of being part of the live stream commentary for all of those. The x-bionic®sphere in Šamorín provides an amazing venue such an event.

Here is the full announcement.

THE CHAMPIONSHIP postponed to August 29: ‘A weekend filled with spectacular races’

The past few months, the team behind CHALLENGEFAMILY THECHAMPIONSHIP has done everything to make this event happen on the original date (May 23), but due to all the COVID19-measures which are still in place and the accompanying travel restrictions which thousands of athletes from all over the world have to deal with, the decision was made to postpone the event to August 29. This decision was made after extensive consultation with all parties involved.

“We regret having to deliver this news, but want to give our athletes the clarity they deserve. Of course, we would have liked to enjoy this flagship event with everyone in May, but unfortunately that appears to be impossible. Not only do we want everyone to be able to travel safely to Samorin, but we also want to ensure safety at our race venue. Therefore, we now come to the difficult decision to move the event to August 29”, said Race Director Melisa Kubalcová.

CHALLENGEFAMILY THECHAMPIONSHIP and its side-events will now be scheduled on the same weekend as The Collins Cup, which also takes place the day before, on August 28, at extraordinary x-bionic®sphere in Šamorín, near Bratislava, Slovakia. This means that the amazing field of age group athletes are in for a truly spectacular weekend of live triathlon racing as they now have the opportunity to witness the best professionals in the sport do battle in a team competition to decide whether team USA, Europe or International dominates.

Registration of athletes already registered for THECHAMPIONSHIP and the side-events will automatically be carried forward to the weekend of August 27 (side-events) – 29 (Middle Distance), 2021 free of charge. Athletes who are unable or unwilling to race on this new race day will receive a seventy percent refund of their registration fee and is also applicable to already postponed registrations from 2019. They can also choose to get one hundred percent of their entry fee back in the form of an ‘X-Card’. This card can be used as a payment method in the X-BIONIC® SPHERE until December 31st, 2022. Athletes who have already booked their stay at the X-BIONIC® SPHERE will also see that booking carried forward to the new race date free of charge.

Melisa Kubalcová: “We hope, of course, that everyone remains safe and healthy in the coming months and that the world will soon return to a bit of ‘normalcy’. Until then, we continue to work very hard to put on a great edition of CHALLENGEFAMILY THECHAMPIONSHIP and we welcome you in August.”