Hyde Park Paratriathlon Provides key to Paralympic Inclusion
23rd July 2010This weekend’s Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship London, presented by Tata Steel, in Hyde Park will feature Europe’s largest elite paratriathlon race. Entries are up thirty percent on last year as the sport enters the final stretch of a long process to decide its Paralympic future.
Paratriathlon is not currently included in the Paralympic Games, but has aspirations of inclusion in the programme for Rio 2016. The fast growing, dynamic and modern sport of triathlon was introduced to the Olympics just ten years ago. Paratriathlon now looks for International Paralympic Committee recognition to enjoy a similar boost to triathlon.
Britain has one current paratriathlon World Champion, Clare Cunningham, who will compete on Saturday in Hyde Park. Four of our five European Champions, recently crowned in Athlone, Ireland, will also race.
Cunningham already has Paralympic experience as a swimmer in 1992 and is desperately keen to see triathlon be included in Rio 2016. She said: “Being included in Rio 2016 will be absolutely massive for the sport. It would really see the sport move forward rapidly and help attract a high standard of athletes into the sport.”
For paratriathlon to be included, it will need to demonstrate that a minimum of 25 nations are competing in the sport from at least three different continents.
British Triathlon’s president, Dr Sarah Springman, OBE is closely involved in driving forward paratriathlon’s bid for inclusion in her role as an International Triathlon Union Vice President.
She said: “ITU submitted a large file containing our vision for paratriathlon as a paralmypic sport, supported by statistics and technical, governance and administrative documentation to substantiate our bid. We believe there are eight international federations bidding for a maximum of two slots. The compeition will be extremely tough! Should we be successful, we will hope that IPC will grant us our request for 75 places for men and 75 for women divided across six classification categories.
“We are very hopeful that our charismatic paratriathletes, and the wonderful stages, such as Hyde Park, that we have established for them to demonstrate their inspirational performances will help convince decision makers in time for the IPC Congress in November.
Through the investment of corporate partner, Corus, British Triathlon has established a successful paratriathlon performance programme.
Paratriathlon Performance Manager, Jonathan Riall, said: “The GE Great Britain Team had a wonderful performance at the European Championships winning four gold, four silver and four bronze medals.
We are excited about hosting Europe’s biggest elite triathlon this weekend in Hyde Park, and are hopeful of achieving more international success.”
The Paratriathlon race at the Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship London presented by Tata Steel takes place at 3.45pm on Saturday 24 July in London’s Hyde Park.