With the recent loosening of Covid-related travel restrictions, XTERRA has confirmed that Taiwan will host the 2023 XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship on April 15-16, 2023. The event will have a double-feature weekend that will also see the first ever XTERRA Asia-Pacific Trail Run Championship play out at Kenting National Park in Pingtung County.
The off-road multisport event will return for a second year running to Stony Brook Nature Farm, located within the Kenting National Park, to again showcase southern Taiwan’s natural terrain.
The XTERRA full-distance off-road triathlon will be held on Saturday, April 15, and boasts a US$25,000 elite prize purse, 51 qualifying spots to XTERRA Worlds for amateur racers, and a 100-point scale scoring structure for amateurs vying for XTERRA Asia-Pacific Tour honours.
The triathlon will begin on Little Bay Beach before heading into a particularly challenging mountain bike course and trail run through the riverbeds, grassy hills, and rocky tropical forests of Kenting National Park, with new sections set to be added to both the bike and the run for 2023.
Forming part of the new XTERRA Trail Run World Series, the Asia-Pacific Trail Run Championship will take place the following day, offering a prize purse of US$5,200 and a total of 247 qualifying spots to the XTERRA Trail Run World Championship spread amongst the marathon distance (116 slots), half marathon (116 slots), and the duo category (15 slots).
“We’re thrilled to have the APAC Champs back after three long years off, and even more so to be hosting the inaugural Asia-Pacific Trail Run Championship on the same weekend,” said J-D Cousens, XTERRA VP of Operations & Global Marketing.
“The off-road community in the APAC region has been raring to go for some time now. So it feels great to be able to welcome everybody back with a double-feature weekend that will showcase a new venue for the international athletes, improved bike and run sections, and also just how much XTERRA Taiwan has grown since we began in 2018.”
Alongside the full-distance triathlon and the marathon and half-marathon trail runs, the event will include a 29km XC mountain bike race, a beginner-friendly 7km fun run, and kids push bike duathlon.
There will also be live music, food trucks, cultural demonstrations, and entertainment spread throughout the weekend.
The seventh annual XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship in Taiwan is the fourth of seven majors planned for the 2023 XTERRA Asia-Pacific Tour. This also includes stops in Wellington, New Zealand (Feb 25); Rotorua, New Zealand (March 11); Dunsborough, Australia (April 1); Marunuma, Japan (TBD); Shenzhen, China (TBD); and Moorea, Tahiti (TBD).
The last time the XTERRA Asia-Pacific Championship was held in Kenting, Taiwan was in 2019. Previous editions have been staged in the Philippines (2018), Malaysia (2017), and Australia (2014-2016).
