New World Championship events for Triathlon

The International Triathlon Union (ITU), the sportâs international governing body, has signed a new partnership with Lagardère Sports, the sports division of French media giant Lagardère, to create and deliver a new series of six world championship events.
As of 2009, the ITU Triathlon World Championships will replace its single one day event format with a series of six World Championship events plus a Grand Final. In 2010 this will expand to a maximum of eight events.
Starting in March next year, the events will take place on a monthly basis until September, except in summer Olympic years when the Grand Final will be moved to October or November.
Events are expected to take place in city centres and include mass participation races. Each event is designed to have real significance with the worldâs best triathletes competing head-to-head over the series to be crowned World Champion.
Olivier Guiguet, Chief Executive of Lagardère Sports, explains, âthis new World Series, which we have founded jointly with ITU, is a natural consequence of our corporate ambition to join the profound expertise of professional sports marketing and sports event organisation under one roof.�?
Under the plans, a Lagardère subsidiary will sell global sponsorship rights for the series, as well as centrally managing TV production and distribution, while another will help coordinate and organise the events with host organisations.
The ITU is currently accepting applications from host cities for World Championship Series events and, following evaluation, a full schedule and calendar is expected to be announced in early November.