Hi ho Multisports athletes !
By now, we all know the Worlds are coming to Ottawa … But what else do we know ?
Trimes managed to gather some info so far, see the bidding document below, lots of interesting content, including details on the course.
A public relations company is behind the scene of that project. Actually it is an excellent company, so excellent that they were successful enough to win the bid on their own, shortcutting TriCan and TriON and going directly to ITU themselves (see below).
We think they will be very good at promoting … but will need to outsource everything else, including the « race directing ». And when it comes to race directing, well there are lots of choices here in town. Of course we think about the heavy weight Somersault Promotions, but we do have also many individuals as well … and many more if you look outside the tri/du people.
The company’s name is Called TrojanOne. The only multi sport name in it (we think) is Norm O’Reilly who used to work for TriCan and the Edmonton World Cup a decade ago.
They surely have an excellent relationship with the all parties concerned (you can guess by looking at their portfolio), Tourism Ottawa and probably have talked already with the NCC, the cities of Gatineau and Ottawa.
BUT usually it does not work that way. The unwritten rule goes like this : an existing sanctioned event (with local provincial federation/association) applies to its provincial federation/association, who then bring it to TriCAN and so on until ITU approval.
Here, the TrojanOne people successfully went directly to ITU. One guesses Trojan is the right name 🙂
Here is the bidding document.
Now the rumours part and how to qualify !
As many of you know, in Canada, you need to qualify to race this kind of events. Then you can sign up via TriCan and also have buy the mandatory wardrobe that comes with the Worlds package.
As TriCan made this announcement so late (at the Toronton Tri Festival), when all the qualifiers were behind us, there is a rumour saying that we will have one or two qualifiers in the spring of 2013. After all, it would be so sad to have the Worlds happening here in the streets of our Capital, with a poor Canadian contingent !
Of course you can choose to buy a charity entry via TriCan. And since there are lots talks in town about charities these days, just know that TriCan is a registered charity. Therefore, we think the money is going to them, and is used for our sport development.
Here are the official documents
ITU official page : here
Official ITU statement :
The International Triathlon Union (ITU) is pleased to announce that Ottawa, Canada will now act as the 2013 ITU Duathlon World Championships for Under23, Junior, Paraduathlon and Age-Group athletes, replacing the previous host city Segovia.
The races will be held on August 10-11, 2013, in the centre of Canada’s capital city. The elite races for the 2013 ITU Duathlon World Championships will be held at the 2013 World Games in Cali, Colombia.