ITU celebrates World Triathlon Series

By: Rob Fawdon, London, UK, June 03, 2014: This weekend’s International Triathlon Union World Triathlon Series [WTS] event held in Hyde Park, London, has been heralded as the most successful non-Grand Final London WTS event in history after the race achieved unprecedented participation and attendance figures, and registered record breaking online viewers and traffic across multiple digital platforms.

ITU’s WTS events bring together the very best elite triathletes from across the globe as they compete for the crucial ranking points they need to become crowned ITU World Champion. The men’s elite race was won by Spain’s Mario Mola [49m 46sec] and the women’s elite race was won by USA’s Gwen Jorgensen [54m 44sec].

The WTS events are also open to the general public and this mass participation element welcomes people of all fitness levels and from all backgrounds to take up the sport of triathlon. The men’s and women’s elite races were held on Saturday 31st May and the mass participation Open Races were held on Sunday 1st June.

This year’s Open Race saw the largest public age-group participation numbers, with figures up by 10% to the full capacity number of 5,000 compared to the same London WTS event in 2011 – the last time a non-Grand Final WTS event was held in the city. The 2014 London WTS Open Race also had 1,600 first time participants.

Other record breaking numbers from the London WTS event this weekend included:
 Overall onsite spectator figures were approximately 40,000, including Grandstand seating which was completely sold-out in advance
 Online traffic for the official ITU website [Triathlon.org] increased significantly for 2014’s race weekend with 41,000 users and 410,000 page views this year – compared to 32,000 users and 161,000 page views in 2011
 The expected positive economic impact on London was £5 million

BT Sport, a new broadcaster for Triathlon, will run a new hour-long exclusive magazine show this week with a highlights package for the London WTS event. Additionally, the host national broadcaster in the UK, BBC, broadcast the men’s and women’s elite races live on its premier flagship channel, BBC ONE on Saturday 31st May. The races were also shown live on the BBC Sport website and Eurosport will be broadcasting the races as repeats.

Speaking about the WTS event in London, ITU President and IOC Member, Marisol Casado, said:
“Here in London we have demonstrated the continued growth of Triathlon around the world. The World Triathlon Series is showing great strength as a global event and concept and it’s excellent to see top athletes competing at an iconic location in a great city.

“It’s also wonderful to see the event full to capacity with around 40,000 spectators coming to watch the top class sport on offer. We are confident that with continued ambition and with increased emphasis on the vision we all share for Triathlon, including showcasing the sport successfully at Rio 2016, we can further grow the event globally, helping us to break more records in future.”