July 2/3, 2011: ITU Edmonton World Cup and PATCO Junior Champs. See below:
WORLD CUP TRIATHLONS RETURN TO EDMONTON
FIVE-YEAR CONTRACT WITH ITU
EDMONTON, October 20: Following a break of three years, World Cup triathlons will again be staged to thrill Edmontonians in and around Hawrelak Park.
The announcement was made today at City Hall by Sheila O’Kelly, the Executive Director of the decade of Edmonton’s triathlon events and now the Managing Director of the International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Cup series, as well as being a member of the Board of the fledgling
Edmonton Triathlon Academy.
Edmonton is one of 8 host cities of the 2011series announced today by the ITU. “After a decade of staging successful events, the board of World Cup Triathlon Edmonton decided in 2007 that it was time to let other Canadian communities organize international triathlon events, while we wanted to focus on retaining Edmonton’s legacy of providing world-class triathletes,” said O’Kelly.
She pointed out that two of the six members of the Canadian triathlon team competing at the Olympic Games in Beijing were Edmontonians who were introduced to international competition on their home course. They were Paul Tichelaar and Carolyn Murray, who is now a coach at the Triathlon Canada training centre in Victoria.
“With this in mind, we created the Edmonton Triathlon Academy, to provide top-quality training for young triathletes from northern Alberta. We have succeeded in this venture, by finding and hiring one of the best triathlon coaches – Kevin Clark - who in only three months has 15 members in the Academy,” added O’Kelly.
She went on to explain that these young triathletes need to have the best-quality competitions in which to test themselves and gauge their progress. Next year, there was not a single World Cup event planned for Canada.
So, at the ITU annual meeting in Budapest in September, she made a pitch for Edmonton to again host a series of World Cup events. There was unanimous support, as many people remembered the success of the 2001 World Championships and the following six World Cup races.
The event, to be held on the weekend of July 2nd and 3rd, will now have an added international appeal. O’Kelly returned two days ago from Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, where she was attending the congress of the Pan American Triathlon Confederation (PATCO) and the Pan American Triathlon Championships.
This was a test event for the 2011 Pan Am Games.
The annual congress of the PATCO nations agreed that next year’s Junior Championships will be held in Edmonton on the World Cup weekend. Commenting on the news, Stephen Holmes, President of Triathlon Canada, said: “I am delighted that Edmonton has again taken up the challenge of staging a World Cup in Canada, which will help all our athletes in their development and be a great assistance to Triathlon Canada’s strategic plan and its focus on Long Term Athlete Development.”
Mayor Mandel, who competed in a team triathlon with Councilors Karen Leibovici and Jane Batty at the 2005 World Cup in Hawrelak Park, was a strong advocate of the bid to return international triathlons to Edmonton.
“I think that the triathlon events have been one of the best and most successful international sporting events staged in our city, and I am thrilled that they are to return next year,” he said.
For further information: Brian Hetherington 780-455-8208 or 780-886-6459
