Promising “superstar fields and action-packed racing formats”, Super League Triathlon (www.superleaguetriathlon.com) was officially launched today, with the first event being held over three days, 17-19 March, at Hamilton Island in Australia.
The Super League Triathlon Formats
Find out more about the variety of event formats that will be bend during Super League Triathlon races:
The Triple Mix – ‘Mix it up’
A three-round race with a 10-minute break in between rounds, taken from the time the first athlete crosses the finish line in the previous round. In round one athletes will complete a swim-bike-run sequence. In round two athletes will run-bike-swim and in round three athletes will bike-swim-run. The winner of Triple Mix is determined by the athlete with the lowest accrued time over the three rounds.
Equalizer – ‘Pay the penalty’
A two-part race with part one comprising an individual time trial (cycling) and part two comprising a continuous swim-run-swim-bike-run sequence. The tough individual time trial course rewards the strong cyclists. Any time lost by an athlete in the part-one individual time trial is served as a penalty in part two of Equalizer. The winner is the first athlete across the finish line in part two.
Eliminator – ‘The front or nowhere’
A three-round race with a 10-minute break in between rounds, taken from the time the first athlete crosses the finish line in the previous round. Athletes will complete a swim-bike-run sequence in each round. Athletes finishing in 16th place and above in round one are eliminated. Athletes finishing in 11th place and above in round two are eliminated. The final ten athletes will race in round 3 with the winner of Eliminator being the first athlete across the finish line in Round 3.
Two further formats – not being used at Hamilton Island, but at future events – are:
Enduro
A race for the endurance athlete with a continuous swim-bike-run-swim-bike-run-swim-bike-run sequence. The winner of Enduro is the first athlete across the finish line upon completion of the entire race sequence.
Sprint Pursuit
A two-part race with part one being an individual time trial over a swim-bike-run format (Sprint). Part two is a Pursuit, a continuous swim-bike-run-swim-bike-run sequence. Athletes are awarded a start time slot in the Pursuit based on their finish position in the Sprint. The Pursuit will commence twenty (20) minutes after the last finisher of the Sprint. The first place finisher in the Sprint receives a seven-second head start in the Pursuit over the second place finisher in Sprint. Athletes ranked two-to-five in the Sprint start the Pursuit in 5 second intervals (in order of their Sprint finish position) and all finishers finishing 6th position and above in the Sprint will start Pursuit at further 3 second intervals in the order that they finished in the Sprint.
Triathlon’s mid-season report card: Tim Don on who’s raising the bar this triathlon race season
