The 23rd annual XTERRA World Championship off-road triathlon is scheduled for Sunday, October 28, 2018 in Kapalua, Maui. The XTERRA World Championship course covers 28 miles of unyielding terrain. As the XTERRA team note, ‘the experience is a sensory riot, featuring fragrant breezes, Pacific blue water, bright yellow sun, soft white sand, fine red dirt, and cool green lawns.’
As the world’s premier off-road triathlon, the course combines a 1.5k swim that starts at D.T. Fleming Beach in front of the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua; a 32k mountain bike that climbs 3,500 feet up and down the lower slopes of the West Maui Mountains; and a 10.5k trail run that traverses forest trails, and beach sand. Top elites finish in roughly two-and-a-half hours.
There is a sold-out field of 800 racers including more than 50 elites and 700+ amateurs representing 44 countries. Ages range from 15 (Jonah Kirkham from Maui and Staci Lovell from the Big Island) to 73 and 76 (Wendy Minor from the Big Island, and Roger Kern from California). XTERRA notes that 94% of the field is from out of state.
The XTERRA World Championship off-road triathlon starts at 09:00 local time on Sunday, October 28. Also taking place on the weekend, the XTERRA Kapalua Trail Runs take place on Saturday, October 27 at 09:00.
The XTERRA World Championship race is the last in a series of more than 100 off-road triathlon races held in 30 countries. XTERRA adds that the concept is to provide a bona-fide world championship for amateur and elite off-road triathletes. For professionals there is US$100,000 in prize money at stake.
Elite athletes must race a qualifying XTERRA World Tour event, and amateurs enter through one of five ways:
- Earn a slot by qualifying as one of the top finishers in their age group at an XTERRA World Tour Championship event in South Africa, Chile, Argentina, Costa Rica, New Zealand, Malta, Philippines, Cyprus, Greece, Uruguay, Tahiti, Brazil, the US, Italy, Portugal, Dominican Republic, Belgium, Switzerland, France, Canada, Czech Republic, Mexico, Romania, Poland, Germany, Finland, Norway, or Denmark
- Win their regional championship during the course of the XTERRA America Tour
- Win their division in the XTERRA European, Pan American, or Asia-Pacific Tour
- Age Group Champions from the previous year are provided a slot to defend their crown.
- At-large drawing – a limited number of slots were offered on a first-come first-serve basis in December 2017.
This is the 23rd year for the XTERRA World Championship on Maui, the birthplace of off-road triathlon. The first XTERRA race was held November 3, 1996 and was televised on Fox Sports Net. The demand for the sport expanded thereafter; and there are now more than XTERRA 50,000 competitors from all 50 states and more than 50 countries.
This will be the 23rd straight year a nationally (now internationally) broadcast one-hour show will be produced on the event, which showcases Maui’s natural beauty. The 2018 XTERRA World Championship will be seen by more than 6 million viewers via national US syndication (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX), Fox Sports Network, ESPN International, and European distribution.
This year’s show will start its run in national syndication in mid-January 2019. In addition, eight half-hour XTERRA Adventures TV shows, and an hour-long broadcast on the XTERRA Pan American Championship are being distributed around the world.
The 2017 XTERRA World Championship reportedly created US$6.7 million in direct visitor expenditures, and 81 jobs were supported. The average length of stay on Maui was 7.4 nights (8.2 nights in Hawaii), the average party size was 2.6, and 62% of the field had a household income of more than US$100,000.
