The final preparations for this year’s edition of Enea IRONMAN 70.3 Gdynia, to be held on 5-6 September, are underway. As previously announced, via an event adaptation plan, updated competition routes have been published.
The organizers of Enea IRONMAN 70.3 Gdynia aim to conduct the event in a way that… ‘will provide unforgettable emotions and will guarantee the maximum level of safety for both the athletes and the event staff and volunteers.’
One of the key elements of the event plan is the desire to minimize contact between the participants of the event, including the ‘maximum dispersion of competitors’. Therefore, participating athletes will compete on modified routes.
The most notable changes concern the running route. Here, athletes will run on two – not three, as before – loops; and one loop will be extended from approximately 7 km to 10 km.
“Thanks to this modification, the density of runners in the running section will be significantly reduced, and thus everyone will have more space around them,” said Adam Okrój from the Enea IRONMAN 70.3 Gdynia organizational team.
“However, the most important elements of the route will not change: we will run both along Świętojańska Street and along the Nadmorski Boulevard, and the finish line will still remain on the city beach in Gdynia.”
“The cycling route, thanks to its single 90km loop, helps to ensure a high level of dispersion of riders,” said Michał Drelich, director of Enea IRONMAN 70.3 Gdynia.
“What’s more, the rules of IRONMAN state the need to keep a 12m distance between the riders, and the enforcement of this rule has always been important to our team.”
The swimming route does not change, although the start procedure itself will be more stretched in time. Athletes will be divided into four main starting groups, each of which will contain a maximum of 250 people.
The groups will start consecutively at intervals of 30 minutes. Moreover, within one group, athletes will be released 8 people at 10-second intervals (rolling start). All this is to separate triathletes from each other as much as possible, and also minimize the time spent in a larger group in transition.
