With over 2000 age group athletes participating, the organising team at Challenge Daytona in Florida have heralded the event as a ‘huge success’.
One of few high profile races to take place in a Covid-interrupted year, the event was boosted by the inclusion of the inaugural PTO 2020 Championship – which was broadcast to over 100 countries.
There were over 2800 registered athletes for this year’s Challenge Daytona, which took place over the weekend of December 4th-6th. There were over 2200 finishers, across varying race formats; the gender split was roughly 64 : 36, male-female.
On Friday, amateur athletes could team up with the professional athletes during the Pro-Am Relay. A day later, varying age group races for the entire family were being held. The event finished off with the PTO 2020 Championship, which was won by the Canadian Paula Findlay and the Norwegian Gustav Iden.
“It was amazing to see all those athletes race again,” said Challenge Family CEO Jort Vlam. “Especially after such a year, it is amazing to have both the best athletes in the world and lots of age group athletes racing in the same weekend.
“What we all love about this event, is that it’s truly one for the entire family. There are races for every member of the family with both the triathlon, duathlon and aquathlon events, as the runs and the junior races. It’s absolutely amazing to see entire families coming to Daytona and enjoy our beloved sport together.”
As a unique venue for this year’s Challenge Daytona, the Daytona International Speedway was seen as important by the organising team for the implementation of COVID-19 safety policies.
The event utilized NASCAR protocols; and, as there are only a few places to access the speedway site, all individuals could be checked before they enter.
“I’m really impressed to see all the safety measurements implemented,” Vlam said. “The local team in Daytona did an amazing job making sure the event could take place in a more than safe way.”
He continued, “I want to thank the entire team for everything they’ve done to guarantee the safety of every single athlete. It was great to see that the team thought of every single detail, ensuring the event was extremely safe.”
The Middle Distance Triathlon – the qualification event for Challenge Family’s The Championship – saw around 1000 athletes registered to participate. The Sprint Triathlon was also popular, with over 870 registered.
Pro-Am Relay
In this Sprint Distance race, pro athletes completed the swim part, while age group athletes took care of the bike and run. Team Sarah Crowley turned out to be the fastest team overall.
The Pro-Am Relay brought both pros and age groupers together. This something that Challenge Family CEO Jort Vlam thinks is very important. He said, “Family is in our brand name of course, and therefore this format is something that suits us very well.
‘We love to organize races for the best pros in the world, but age groupers are at least as important to us. We love to see them all having fun.”
www.challenge-daytona.com
www.protriathletes.org
