Does not exactly sound age group friendly.

No less than current ITU long distance WC.

If they do a good job at this year's event it could be tempting for a lot of people. This year's course sounds pretty cool

I'm all for it. If they align with ITU like they have for the ETU European Champs, then we will finally have a true world championship with a truly world championship quality field.

Would be nice too if ITU focused on their long distance series more. Maybe a partnership like this would allow them to do that.

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Bahrain might be a non-starter for a lot of people.

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That would be awesome. Hopefully they can give WTC a run for their money and showcase the pros as they should be. Maybe even Tour de France style coverage (multiple moto cams, aerial cam, live splits and time gaps)..?

I haven't experienced a Challenge event yet, from what I have been told & read in interviews/reviews their events are spectacularly put on. I could only imagine the lengths they would go to for a WC.

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Itu already has a long course world championship how would this be any different? Aside from serious money.

Likely the difference will be an actual championship quality pro field. Due to the serious prize money.

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Yes but the pros already have a true world championship so it's not like the sport is missing one. So this would just be a competing event.

Are you implying that Kona is the true world championship and this would compete with it? I hope Challenge does. If Challenge puts on and brings huge cash and promo/coverage to the ITU Long Course World Champs and actually treats the event like a World Championship, unlike WTC does w Kona, i think it would be a great thing for the sport.

Where is the "true" world championship now. If you look at cycling, marathon and other endurance sports you know what is the world championship. Currently long distance triathlon has no real world championship in that fashion.

Hopefully one will be established and long distance triathlon can evolve like most other endurance sports.

Can someone point me to an objective definition of what is required for a true World Championship? Not being snarky, I just think the debate over Kona being or not being a true World Championship is polluted with the love or hatred of WTC.

And... cue the Americans complaining they have to travel far...
Hawaii isn't exactly a short hop for most of the world.

I hope they use the 4/120/30 distance... love it.

A world championship wants to bring the best in the world together and compete. In most endurance sports you have qualifying, but it is not determine by what company they organize the event. Just look at cycling, cross country skiing, biathlon, track/marathon, speed skating or ITU racing.
The championship is not owned by a corporation in those sports.
Currently long distance triathlon is organized like professional boxing and MMA, not like other endurance sports.
This has nothing to do with WTC, it has to do with how sports are organized outside of long distance triathlon.

I'm in the US. Bahrain would be far and away a more appealing race location than Kona. Not even a question.

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If that's the case (sounds reasonable), I don't see how a Challenge WC, even if it is somehow aligned with ITU, resolves this. In an ideal world, ITU would need to rotate the WC among locations and promoters. Otherwise, the "Bahrain Challenge World Championship" (just making that up) is no different than Kona. I suppose they could have more open qualification standards, although I bet they will adopt a similar closed qualification system to WTC.

Who gives a rats ass that Kona is run by a corporation? Every pro tells you it is the world championship. Well except Macca now who works for Challenge. Who are these poor pros who don't get to race in the world championship? They know the qualification standard but choose not to try to qualify for whatever reason. Again name some long distance pros who chose not to attempt to qualify that could have won? I will wait. Forever.

Ok so let's play Devils advocate here. How do we select who goes to this mythical "world championship"? How many starters? Do the countries get to select who represents them? Because that leads to zero controversy at the Olympic level at all. An dat least at the Olympic level the athletes can race many many times in a year, not so for long distance tri.

You are right, it is all about the qualification. If you need to race a Challenge events to qualify, then this will just be a copy of Ironman/WTC and not an improvement that will benefit the sport.

I would love to see the Brownlee brothers taking on a half distance, I would love to see Norden doing the same. The goal should be to have the best athletes competing when they have had a chance to be at their best shape. Not worn down by qualifying.

Im sure travel distance will be a concern for more than just Americans. Kona isnt exactly cheap to get to for those on the mainland either.

I would suspect a number of people might take exception to Bahrain's human rights record.

No they don't. If you think Kona, as much as we all love it, it is not. That is a self proclaimed WC event typical of anything else on American soil, like Baseball "World Series" or similar, all self proclaimed.

They should hold it on the same day as KONA and see who shows up for the big money!!!

 

Scheduling a race the same day as another race doesn't sound like a nice thing to do

I am sure the Bahrainies are more ethical than that

Rumor is that they will be there this year. Hope it's true.

For qualification, I would hope it would be left to National triathlon bodies.

Here we go again! THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A TRUE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP. There are only different venues claiming to be world championships with varying degrees of credibility. And it is the level of competition that makes a championship credible. It doesn't matter whether the championship is self proclaimed as is Kona, or has the stamp of approval by a self-appointed governing body. All of them are in it for the money and that goes triple for the Olympics.

What I don't understand here is what does it mean that the ITU will align with Challenge to create a world championship when the ITU already has a World Long Course Triathlon Championship. E.g, Motola, Sweden (2015) and Oklahoma (2016). Does it mean that ITU will give it to Challenge Bahrain for 2017 and then continue to rotate it after then? Does it mean that ITU is going to give it Bahrain permanently in 2017 and cease rotating the venue? Or does it mean they are creating a completely different World Championship distance than the current Long Course World Championship in which case what is the point of having two different ITU sanctioned long course championships?