The announcement of the partnership between World Triathlon and PTO – which will jointly organize the ‘Official World Championship Long Distance Tour‘ starting next year – means uncertainty for World Triathlon’s long-standing World Championships Multisport. This week of World Championships over various distances includes a World Championship Long Distance, but it is highly uncertain what that will be like from 2025.
The World Championships Multisport took place in Ibiza early this year and has already been given to Townsville, Australia, for next year (2024). Six world championships take place each year at the World Championship Multisport, both for professional athletes and Age Groupers. The World Championship Long Distance is almost always over the O3 distance (4-120-30) usual for World Triathlon. Inquiries with World Triathlon reveal that that World Championships Long Distance in Townsville will go on as usual: that title race will thus coexist with the ‘Official World Championship Long Distance Tour’ announced today.
That means World Triathlon will name a World Champion Long Distance twice in 2024. Incidentally, the distance of the World Championship Long Distance Tour is different: 2 kilometers of swimming, 80 kilometers of biking and 18 kilometers of running. “For 2024 in Townsville the Long Distance World Championships is part of the Multisport week,” Olalla Cernuda said on behalf of World Triathlon. “So a title will be awarded there and a new title will be addressed for the new T100 event in 2024, as the contract for that year is already signed.”
No venue has yet been designated for the World Championships Multisport 2025, and so it isn’t yet decided how the week will look like. Whether the World Championship Long Distance will still be part of it, World Triathlon itself does not yet know. “We will agree in the next World Triathlon Congress whether we keep it there -under the new format- or we rename it and keep it separated.”
