Europe Triathlon

This weekend is one of the most important races of the season for the youth athletes of Europe as they compete in Weert for a place at the 2014 Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing.

The sport of Triathlon will be represented by a Men’s event, Women’s event and a Mixed Relay event at Nanjing, and Europe has been awarded eleven qualification places, per gender, for the Games.

On Saturday, 17th May, over 120 athletes will compete in a Sprint Distance Triathlon race (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run).

The best eleven athletes will qualify for the individual events in Nanjing, with one athlete per National Federation. Therefore, if one Federation is represented more than once in the top eleven, the qualification places will roll onto 12th, 13th etc as required.

On Sunday, a Mixed relay competition will take place. Continental teams of four athletes (2 Men and 2 Women) will be formed according to the athletes’ finishing position in the individual event. For example. the first team will be composed of the first two Men and first two Women from the continent with the best finishing positions, the second team will be composed of the next two Men and two Women, etc.

All of the remaining athletes who are not assigned to a Continental Team will be combined into “World Teams” according to the athletes’ finishing position in the individual event. 

The full ITU triathlon criteria for qualification for the 2014 Youth Olympic Games can be found here.

RACE INFORMATION:

Youth Women Start List, 1300 start (CEST)

Youth Men Start List, 1430 start (CEST)

The Mixed Relay competition will begin on Sunday at 1345 (CEST)

A live stream of the Weert Youth Olympic Games qualifier can be found here. Broadcast will start at 1245 CEST on Saturday and 1330 (CEST) on Sunday.