Wildfires impact triathlon (again). Super League Penticton final day cancelled

When nature stops racing…

Penticton Pro athletes ALL get the Super League Jersey ‘Super’ ticket

Wildfires impact triathlon. After the course changes forced on the organisers of IRONMAN UK last month, the weekends Super League Triathlon Penticton in Canada, the final qualifier also fell victim to nature.

For Pro athletes, this was a chance to secure a contract for the Championship series of Super League, starting at the end of September in Jersey. After holding Friday nights stand-alone time trial, the remaining events all had to be cancelled due to the poor air quality caused by wildfires in British Columbia. As a result, ALL of the Penticton Pro athletes will be invited to race at Super League Triathlon Jersey – with the top five of those athletes continuing within the Championship series of events.

Indirectly, that is good news for Jersey’s Oliver Turner, who had travelled to Canada to secure a start at his home race.

Here are the full details from the crew at Super League Triathlon – including a video of Chris McComack, co-founder of Super League Triathlon, informing the Pro athletes if that news.

SUPER LEAGUE TRIATHLON

PENTICTON EVENT CALLED OFF FOR SAFETY OF PARTICIPANTS AND CREW

Wildfires which have affected much of British Columbia for the past six days forced organisers of this weekend’s Super League Triathlon event to cancel all racing on the final day

Organisers of the second, and final, Qualifier event for Super League Triathlon’s (SLT) Championship Series, were forced to take the decision to call off the racing yesterday (Sunday) for all participants, following a very disrupted schedule on Saturday.

The team, led by co-founders Michael Dhulst and Chris McCormack, had been monitoring the weather conditions closely all weekend, in order to gauge whether racing could safely take place. In addition, Michael, Chris and the team liaised withTriCan and TriBC, in order to ensure the safety of all participants and crew, in light of the worsening air quality.

Fortunately for those competing in the Age Group (AG) races, they were able to complete two out of their scheduled three events before the air quality became too hazardous for their health. All who were able to compete agreed that the racing had been fantastic and they loved the new formats.

“This was the most fun I’ve had doing any type of racing in a long time. Thanks for bringing fun back into triathlon! This was such a refreshing event and I can’t wait to come back next year”, commented AG athlete Sophia Chadwick. Fellow Age Grouper Chris Lough said: “Thank you to everyone for organising an amazing new triathlon experience for athletes. It was an absolute blast, especially the TT on Friday. I’ll be back next year and will recommend it to everyone.”

Michael D’hulst, co-founder and CEO of SLT, said: “We are hugely disappointed that we had to make the difficult decision to call off all racing today, but the safety of our athletes and crew is of paramount importance. We have been closely monitoring the weather and the wildfires, and while we hoped the conditions would improve over the weekend, unfortunately, this was not the case. The athletes have been kept apprised of conditions and our concerns throughout the weekend, and have been fully supportive of the difficult decisions we have made.”

“Our thoughts are with the firefighters, emergency services and residents who are affected by these fires. While disappointed we weren’t able to bring to Penticton today, the full excitement of the undoubtedly fantastic racing there would have been, ultimately the race is of secondary importance when weighed against the wildfires being tackled across British Columbia.”

Check out @MaccaNow telling all of the athletes the big surprise. https://t.co/6VgXuIVA0y #IAMSUPERLEAGUE pic.twitter.com/n3WD9JSFJk

— Super League Triathlon (@SuperLeagueTri) August 19, 2018

Due to the fact that the Pros were unable to fully complete any format over the weekend, SLT has announced that those who completed the Individual Time Trial (ITT) on Friday, will be invited to the opening Championship Series race in Jersey. The prize money which would have been awarded at Penticton, will now be used to contribute to flights for the athletes to get to Jersey, where they can race against the other 20 Pros who have already booked their places. The top five from the Penticton crew post-Jersey, will be offered the chance to continue the series.

Super League Canada was the first SLT event to visit North America and was designed to be the final chance for the pros to grab a ‘Golden Ticket’ – a lucrative contract for the Championship Series races.

SLT pits the world’s best male and female triathletes against each other across unique and challenging short course formats throughout the league’s season; culminating in the ultimate champion of the Championship Series, crowned at the final event in Australia on 23-24 March 2019.