Super League Triathlon is a closed league consisting of nonstandard triathlon based races held in the traditional off-season of the sport. Every race involves a swim, bike and run element but all contain additional rules in an aim to test athletic ability, increase viewer excitement and increase the popularity of triathlon more globally.
Structure
The leagues season lasts from around September to April, over the course of the season Rounds are held at locations around the world, a Round will normally cover a weekend with multiple races occurring for both the men's and women's competition.
Contracts
Being a closed league only athletes who have a contract with the league for the current season may compete, most athletes that are considered to be the current best in the world are invited to sign contracts with additional contracts won in preseason qualifier events and others awarded to local athletes. The current split is the top ten from the previous season are awarded contracts with ten more split between the best placed at the two qualifying events and the final five being wild card invites currently favouring young or local athletes. This gives a total of 25 athletes for both the men's and women's competitions.
Jerseys
All athletes wear the same yellow jersey with the leagues sponsorship on it, however there is also space for personal or national sponsors. Each jersey is adorned with the athletes national flag for men on the left shoulder and for women on the side panelling under both arms. Special coloured jerseys are awarded to athletes to distinguish them each colour has a specific meaning:
blue-fastest swim split from the previous round
green-fastest bike split from the previous round
red-fastest run split from the previous round
white-athletes under 21
pink-overall points lead
A jersey of each colour is awarded to the relevant men and women before the start of the next round, except the white jersey which is awarded to all of the athletes under 21. The women's jerseys are currently a more revealing design than that of the men. This continues to draw criticism from female triathlon participants across the sport with regards to objectification of female athletes and safety/health implications of a lack of breast tissue support and skin cancer risk, due to their open back design.
Points
During every Round each race awards points towards an athletes Round score then at the end of a Round athletes are ranked based on their total Round points and awarded League points based on placement, the athlete with the most League points at the end of the season is crowned the overall winner. Point distributions for Round and League points are the same using the following spread.
Place
1st
2nd
3rd
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12-15
16-20
>21
DNS
Points
25
21
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
3
2
1
0
-3
Any athlete that gets pulled from a race due to a time cut will have Round points removed,if they are pulled in the first stage of a race the lose two points if they are pulled during the second stage they lose one point and if they are pulled in the third stage they are awarded 0 points for that race.
Races
Super league triathlon was created with the aim of testing athletes abilities in each discipline of a triathlon but not in the usual way, to do this the league consists exclusively of races that do not follow this convention. Each race is designed to test different aspects of an athletes ability and racing nous. All races are based on short loops this leads to fast and aggressive styles of racing, this also means that the race can be based in a city allowing spectators to repeatedly see athletes pass and cause minimal inconvenience to the host. At every location a short loop for each race element is set around a central transition area then each race will use those loops but in different variations depending on the race. The current five races are:
Triple Mix- Three short triathlons are raced but in each triathlon the order of the disciplines is changed the first is a traditional swim-bike-run the second is a run-bike-swim and the third is a bike-swim-run, with a ten minute break between each stage to rest and reset their equipment ready for the next one. The first two stages are mass starts with the third being a pursuit with start times based on the sum of the previous two meaning the first over the line of third stage wins the Triple Mix.
Eliminator-Three short triathlons are raced but at the end of each triathlon the slowest are removed and do not start the next stage. After the first stage the 15 fastest race again then the top ten from the second stage advance to the third stage where the order over the line is the given order of the Eliminator.
Enduro- Three short triathlons are concatenated into one long swim-bike-run-swim-bike-run-swim-bike-run race with the added punishment that last two into transition after each discipline are eliminated.
Sprint Enduro- The field is split in two by random draw, each half races a short triathlon with the first five from each half advancing along with the two fastest finishers not to automatically qualify. Those who advance race a shorter enduro race consisting of two short triathlons i.e. a swim-bike-run-swim-bike-run race.
Equalizer-A two-stage race comprising an individual cycling time trial in for the first stage then the second stage a swim-run-swim-bike-run is raced with the stage started pursuit style with the time gaps from the previous time trial.
Also if an athlete is at any point 90 seconds down form first place they are pulled form the event. This is to keep the focus of the race at the front and to avoid athletes getting lapped and interfering with the race due to the short loops used for the course. In all instances the swim is open-water and the cycling will be draft-legal.
2018-2019 Season
About the season
Results
Men's Results
Women's Results
2017
The 2017 season consisted of a test event that was held on Hamilton Island, Australia in order to gauge popularity as well as test many of the unique factors about super league i.e the unique race formats). After the success of the test event another event now also hosting a woman's competition was held on Jersey,this event refined many of the original ideas and allowed for further testing.
Announcement
Although it had been a somewhat open secret in the triathlon media on 10 February Super league triathlon was officially announced and its website launched. During the announcement one of the founders Chris McCormack declared it to be the future of triathlon with 25 of the best professional men competing in action-packed, innovative race formats competing for 200,000 US dollars. It was stated that although this was a test event there were already plans to include an equal woman's event as well as age group races and a total prize purse of 1.5 million US dollars. The series was to be broadcast on television locally by Australia's Fox Sports and in Europe by Eurosport the series also stated that the races would be available to stream live on their own website.
