Having been given the green light to proceed, the XTERRA Trail Run and XTERRA World Championship off-road triathlon races took place on December 4-5, 2021, at the Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua on Maui.
Last year, the 25th edition of the XTERRA World Championship in Maui, Hawai’i, scheduled for November 8, and the 13th annual XTERRA Trail Run World Championship half-marathon on Oahu, on December 6, were cancelled due to COVID-19.
The return of XTERRA to Maui this year was welcomed by the off-road racing community, after a strict lockdown was imposed across Hawai‘i from mid-August to October.
It was a wild day for XTERRA, with the swim being cancelled for the first time in 25 years since the inaugural 1996 race on Maui due to massive surf and hazardous rip currents. The race converted to a run-bike-run duathlon that started with a 3K run. This was followed by a gruelling two-lap 31K mountain bike ride and finished with an 11K trail run through forest trails and beach sand.
On Sunday, December 5, Tokyo Olympics triathlon bronze medalist Hayden Wilde from New Zealand and gold medalist Flora Duffy from Bermuda captured the 25th XTERRA World Championship elite titles on Maui’s northwest coast.
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