Belgium will host a leg of the International Triathlon Union (ITU) World Cup next year, the ITU announced on Thursday at its annual congress, held in Rotterdam. The third leg of the 2018 event is to be organized by the town of Antwerp, the Flemish Triathlon League and the Azteca trading company. Billed for Sunday 17 June in the Eilandje, the old port area in the north of Antwerp, the third leg will be a sprint triathlon: a 750-metre swim, a 20-km cycle race and a five-km foot race. The swim will be held at the marina docks, close to the Museum aan de Stroom (Museum by the River), where the cycle park and finish line will also be set up.
Many additional activities, including mini-triathlons, will also be organized for amateur sportsmen and women.
The Antwerp leg of the World Cup, the second highest level of international triathlon events behind the World Series, brings to three the number of global triathlon circuits to be hosted by Belgium in June 2018. On the 9th of June, Namur will be the venue of the Xterra World Championship, an off-road triathlon, while Grammont will host a middle-distance triathlon of the Challenge Family Circuit on the 10th.
The last time Belgium hosted a leg of the Triathlon World Cup was in 1999, in Kapelle-op-den-Bos, where five-time ITU world champion Simon Lessing of Britain won the men’s event, while American Joanne King took gold in the women’s.
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The Brussels Times
