Townsville to host World Triathlon Multisport Championships

The organisers of the World Triathlon Multisport Championships have announced that the event will be taking place in Townsville from 15th to 25th August 2024.

The 12-day event will include 19 World Championship races across five different levels of athletes, including age group, Paratriathletes, junior, under 23 and elites.

Thousands of athletes from around the world will make their way to North Queensland for the event, with it being the first time the World Triathlon Multisport Championships have been held in Australia.

The World Triathlon Multisport Championships will see duathlon, long distance triathlon, long distance aquabike, aquathlon, cross triathlon and cross duathlon world championship races organised together over the 12-day festival.

This ground-breaking event now allows for athletes to compete in various multisport races, as opposed to electing only one each season. And participants can even vie for the Multisport Legend, a title reserved for those who compete in at least five of the events.

Announcing Townsville’s hosting, World Triathlon President and International Olympic Committee member, Marisol Casado stated “the Multisport World Championships is one of the most successful events in our calendar, and it has proven to be a perfect combination of sport and great triathlon destination for athletes but also for their friends and families, and we are absolutely excited to bring that event to Australia, that has such a great history of hosting World Triathlon events at the best level.

“Over the last years, Australia has become synonymous of triathlon on its multiple variations, and has proved to be a magnificent host for the triathlon family, playing host to some truly memorable performances and great champions, staging races the results of which have helped shape the path of entire seasons. We are extremely excited to head to Townsville in 2024, I am convinced that in 2024, the World Triathlon family will gather together for a true celebration of the sport.”.

Triathlon Australia Chief Executive Tim Harradine said that the countdown to the event was now well and truly on, noting “we look forward to hosting the world's top athletes in Townsville as we further establish our reputation for hosting world-class multisport events.

"We're proud of Australia's strong history of delivering exceptional experiences, in exceptional locations and we also acknowledge the invaluable support of event partners who have made it possible to bring back international racing to Australia and re-establish our place on the global triathlon calendar.

"The countdown to Townsville 2024 is officially on and our Australian athletes are determined to secure their spot on the start line with our Team Australia Qualifying Races getting underway this weekend.”

The World Triathlon Multisport Championships made its debut in the World Triathlon calendar in 2017 in Penticton (Canada), a successful event that was followed by Fyn (Denmark) in 2018 and Pontevedra (Spain) in 2019. The event had to be cancelled in 2020 due to the impact of Covid and in 2021 was split in three different locations: Almere (The Netherlands) hosted the Long Distance and Aquabike races, while the Duathlon World Championships were organised in Aviles, Spain, and the Cross Triathlon World Championships took place in El Anillo, Spain.

The 2022 World Triathlon Multisport Championships took place in Targu Mures, Romania, and Samorin, Slovakia, while for 2023 the event will go back to its tradition set up of one location hosting all events.

The Spanish island of Ibiza will host the Multisport World Championships from 29th April until 7th May this year.

Images: The Townsville shoreline (top) and the Townsville Triathlon and Multisport Festival (below).