Chengdu, Alanya and Tongyeong will be contested over standard distances courses, while the remaining events will offer sprint races. A possible three additional events could be added to the calendar in coming weeks.
2015 ITU Triathlon World Cup season:
March 14-15: Mooloolaba, Australia
March 21-22: New Plymouth, New Zealand
May 9-10: Chengdu, China
June 13-14: Huatulco, Mexico
August 8-9: Tiszaujvaros, Hungary
September 12-13: Montreal, Canada
October 3-4: Cozumel, Mexico
October 17-18: Alanya, Turkey
October 24-25: Tongyeong, South Korea
So 2/3 of the World Cup races are now sprint format.
Not sure I care for the move in that direction…some sprints sure, but the majority? Leaves less chance of swim/bike breakaways and less exciting racing.
I guess it depends on the way you look at it and what your definition of “exciting” is.
In the general sense, exciting is a race/game/event, that hangs in the balance, until nearly the very end. Think of the buzzer-beater in basketball, or the over-time drive and TD in football, or on the track, 5 runners all battling for the win down over the final 200m.
The most exciting triathlon race I saw this year, was the womens super-sprint race that was part of the USAT Grand Prix, in Las Vegas about a month ago. All 10 women who qualified for the final were in contention the whole way through the race. The race was only decided, right on the finish-line!
World cup is tier 2/3 in the ITU, so these races serve as an important bridge to the top level. Sprint is one of many ways to allow tier 1 mix with tier 3 guys, I would speculate.
That, and sprint is much more tv friendly. I wouldnt be surprised to see ITU try and get sprint into the Olympics, with semi finals and finals across females and males, effectively adding 6 events.
Those are not facts, like I said I am just speculating.
That was a guess on my part, but I figure 8 days (unless multiple heats per day, still 8 events) of events in the Olympics trumps 2, being most ideal for the sport. Add in mixed relay Championships. You get 10 days of action. I’m guessing, I do not know how the IOC operated. They might say woah woah guys hold it, one distance, take it or leave it!
It could be developmental, but is a bit annoying at this point trying to move up in the ITU, where a lot of the races available are sprint and all of the “big dances” are going to be Olympic distance!