With Sprint and ITU Mixed Relay World Championships, and in its fifth year on the ITU World Triathlon Series (ITU WTS) calendar, Hamburg will again serve up double the dose of action this weekend. Fast and furious sprint elite races kick off on Saturday followed by the Mixed Relay World Championships on Sunday.
As the organisers (and ITU’s World Triathlon Series commercial partner) Lagardère Unlimited notes that Hamburg is ‘the world’s biggest triathlon’. Dropped in the middle of downtown Hamburg, the race is billed as ‘a recipe for one mega multisport weekend’.
The key players in both the men’s and women’s elite races will be in Hamburg to collect precious ITU WTS points, as only two races remain ahead of the Edmonton Grand Final.
On Sunday, 20 nations will vie for the right to call themselves the fastest in the world at the Mixed Relay World Championships. Germany will attempt to defend its title on home soil, while the Brits look to regain the crown they gave up after back to back wins in 2011 & 2012.
Hamburg is the longest-standing venue on the ITU World Triathlon Series calendar, having hosted events since 2002, including the 2007 World Championships, but has featured a twist recent years with a fast and furious sprint race.
Not only is Hamburg the oldest event on the ITU WTS schedule, it hosts ‘the world’s largest age-group triathlon with more than 10,000 athletes having raced last year.’ For the second consecutive year, it will also host the ITU Mixed Relay World Championships.
This is the fifth Mixed Relay World Championships. Previous winners include Germany (2013), Great Britain (2012, 2011) and Switzerland (2010, 2009). Other teams that have made the podium include USA, New Zealand, Australia, Russia and France. To date, 285 different athletes have started a Mixed Relay World Champs. 17 different athletes have won a gold in Mixed Relay.
