TRIATHLON

Abu Dhabi kicks off 2016 World Triathlon Series & Road to Rio

By International Triathlon Union (ITU)

One of the most anticipated triathlon seasons is set to begin this Saturday with the 2016 ITU World Triathlon Series kicking off in Abu Dhabi. The world’s fastest athletes will toe the UAE start line for a chance of earning the first Columbia Threadneedle Rankings points of the year, all leading up to the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games set for this summer.

Last year Abu Dhabi joined the WTS calendar and became the first Middle Eastern city to ever host a WTS event. This year, the city returns to open up the 2016 season, but this year the course will feature the standard 1.5 kilometre swim, 40-kilometre bike and 10-kilometre run distance. The elite men are set to compete first, but the women have a jam-packed start list full of talent that is sure to open the season in a blaze.

The event will be headquartered at the Abu Dhabi Sailing & Yacht Club on the breakwater opposite the Abu Dhabi Corniche, where a spectator-friendly environment including a 1,000-seater grandstand, a bike park, a ‘Friends and Family’ area, and refreshment kiosks will be offered. The elite event will start in front of the Volvo Ocean Race yacht pontoons with the top men and women on the ITU World Series rankings competing for line honours in the opening event of the 2016 season. Over the weekend, there are aquathlon, sprint, relay, standard and maxi distance events on offer to provide everyone with the perfect challenge. Abu Dhabi has also committed to seeing our great sport grown amongst its youth by organizing kid and youth triathlons.

Training partners go to battle 
Sitting at the top of the list is the Abu Dhabi reigning champion Mario Mola (ESP). While last year the course was positioned as a sprint distance, Mola charmed his way to a gold medal when he broke away from a small three-man pack in the final kilometres. In his final push, he recorded the fastest 5km run split in the history of the WTS, a record he maintained until he beat it himself later that year. He finished second overall in the Columbia Threadneedle Rankings. Training partner South Africa’s Richard Murray had a phenomenal 2015 season and will most definitely continue his streak. Ranked fourth overall last year, he earned the bronze medal in Abu Dhabi last season. Which one will dominate in Abu Dhabi?

Women's Olympic podium meets again
For the first time in over three years, the women's 2012 London Olympic podium will meet again in a race. Reigning Olympic gold medallist Nicola Spirig (SUI) is making her first season WTS appearance this weekend. The Baku European Games champion, she has already qualified for her fourth Olympic Games. However, her podium mates in London have yet to seal their fate. Olympic silver medallist Lisa Norden (SWE) lines up with the Olympics on her mind, in the hunt for important Olympic qualification points after two years of injury. Similarly, after battling illness much of the last Olympic quad, Olympic bronze medllist Erin Densham returns with eyes to Rio.

Olympic qualification heats up
There are only four World Triathlon Series races left to earn points towards Rio Olympic Games qualification. Abu Dhabi is one of those races. Athletes will be going head to head in the race for precious last points in order to earn the right to represent their nations in Rio.

First time for everything
Team USA would certainly win the strength-in-depth award for 2015. They completed podium sweeps in both Gold Coast and London proving that their talent is significantly more than Jorgensen alone. They filled more than half of the podium positions across the season, earning 16 of the 30 medals available from the ten WTS events held last year, with Sarah True (three) and Katie Zaferes (six) regular visitors to the podium. While Zaferes made the podium six times from eight starts in WTS races last year, she has yet has not secured her place for Rio. Will she be able to earn that final birth alongside Jorgensen and True?

Website: abudhabi.triathlon.org