The world’s leading triathlon series is coming to the city with the aim of promoting the Barcelona Triathlon internationally, increasing the prize money to €25,000 for the new Elit Short distance
Sunday 8th October will be the date for the Challenge Barcelona Triathlon, which opens its registrations this Thursday 9th March at 2pm
The Barcelona Triathlon joins Challenge Family, the global triathlon brand, with the aim of further promoting and internationalising one of the most emblematic events on the sporting calendar. With this new alliance, the event will change its name to Challenge Barcelona Triathlon.
The new project was presented today at a press conference attended by the Barcelona City Council Sports Councillor, David Escudé, the CEO of Challenge Family, Jort Vlam, the sports director of the Challenge Barcelona Triathlon, Eloi Moragues, and the professional triathletes, Judith Corachán and Albert Parreño.
The Challenge Barcelona Triathlon 2023 will be held on Sunday 8th October and will open its registrations this Thursday 9th March at 14:00. From today, this event becomes part of the annual Challenge Family calendar, joining the more than 35 triathlon events of the franchise in more than 27 countries around the world.
The Sports Councillor, David Escudé, expressed his satisfaction with this alliance: “This is a new era for triathlon in Barcelona! The fact that our event is now part of the Challenge Family is a huge step towards the internationalisation of the competition and also towards increasing the number of professional athletes who will come to our city in the new Elit Short category. On 8th October the public will enjoy a great sporting spectacle, full of emotions and on the best stage in the world”.
Challenge Family CEO Jort Vlam said: “I am delighted to be here in Barcelona today for the announcement of this event which will be an experience like no other in this stunning city. The new short distance race for professional athletes promises a lot of excitement. In addition, we will have all kinds of disciplines and distances that perfectly represent our slogan “all about the athlete”. We would like to thank the Barcelona City Council for their support in making this happen and we look forward to working with the experienced Challenge Barcelona Triathlon team to create a spectacular event for athletes from all over the world”.
New professional category: Elit Short
This year the race incorporates as a great novelty the Elit Short category with 25,000 euros in prizes. It will be contested over the distances of 1,500 metres swimming, 60 kilometres cycling and 16 kilometres running. It will be exclusively for professional triathletes and will count towards the World Challenge Bonus, an initiative in which the franchise offers elite athletes the opportunity to compete for a ranking with a prise fund of 125,000 euros. On the other hand, the race will also count towards the PTO Ranking, the Professional Triathletes Organisation, and this Short distance will also qualify for The Championship of the Challenge Family, an annual championship that brings together the best triathletes in the world in Samorin (Slovakia).
As for the other modalities, the Challenge Barcelona Triathlon will once again have the following distances:
- Olympic: 1,500 metres of swimming course, 40 kilometres of cycling circuit and 10 kilometres of the running section.
- Sprint: 750 metres of swimming course with one lap, 20 kilometres of cycling course with two laps and 5 kilometres of running course with one lap.
- Super Sprint: 300 metres of swimming course with one lap, 7 kilometres of cycling circuit and 2.5 kilometres of running section with one lap.
As in the last edition, participation can be individual or even in pairs. The Sprint and Olympic distances can also be competed in relay format, so that if you don’t want to do all three disciplines, you can compete in the race with 1 or 2 partners.
The sporting director of the event, Eloi Moragues, added: “The agreement between Challenge Family and Barcelona Triathlon is the best option to make this sporting event more international, more mediatic and with more participants, making a qualitative step forward and placing the city of Barcelona as a reference in triathlon worldwide. It is the best alliance to achieve a unique race in a wonderful environment to make the triathletes enjoy it”.
Professional triathletes Judith Corachán and Albert Parreño also took part in the presentation of the Barcelona Triathlon Challenge. “It is very important for the whole triathlon community that Barcelona becomes part of the Challenge Family world circuit. This city is loved and admired all over the world and to be able to enjoy a race in the heart of Barcelona is a great attraction. As a triathlete from Barcelona, I am very proud and I am sure it will be a great success”, said Corachán. Albert Parreño added: “This is the strongest evolution of the Barcelona triathlon in the last 20 years. I think this is a great opportunity to position our city as one of the world’s leading popular, elite and amateur triathlon events. I feel happy and fortunate to be able to be part of it”.
Junior Challenge & Tri Expo
As in 2022, but with a change in the name of the format, the Challenge Barceona Triathlon will once again offer an option for youngsters with the aim of promoting and bringing this event to teenagers while they enjoy the best scenery and maximum safety. In this way, boys and girls between 12 and 17 years old who want to participate will have the option of doing so in a Super Sprint distance with the same services as adults. In addition to the competition, once again this year the Tri Expo, the triathlon fair, will take place on Friday 6th October from 3pm to 7pm and on Saturday 7th October from 10am to 7pm at the CEM La Mar Bella, where both triathletes and curious onlookers will have access to the specialised sports equipment exhibitors’ fair and also to the event merchandising.
Broadcast on Betevé
For all those who want to follow the competition live but can’t make it to Barcelona’s coastline, this year Betevé will once again broadcast the race with a special programme that will start early in the morning and will last for more than 6 hours.
Photographs of the press conference of the Challenge Barcelona Triathlon 2023
