UK triathlon bosses play for time as world events halted

“These are unprecedented times”.

The words of the UK’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson, as he announced a wave of new measures to instigate the biggest restrictions on the movement of people in Britain since the Second World War may have had a ring of foreboding about them.

But as of yesterday (Monday), the sporting world was ahead of the game, with most events cancelled or postponed for at least the next six weeks.

World Triathlon was one of the first bodies to announce such a move. It said on Saturday that all its events up to the end of April would be cancelled.

Those in charge of the sport in the UK quickly followed suit, with British Triathlon trying to reassure all racers, volunteers and spectators that “the wellbeing of the British Triathlon family is our main priority, particularly as we enter the triathlon season in the UK”.

However, it HADN’T formally cancelled any events, and instead chose to “remind anyone running events, training sessions or trips abroad that they must inform participants, coaches, volunteers and spectators of hygiene precautions to help reduce the spread of infection.”

But with the UK on a high risk alert level, it can only be a matter of time before an official announcement comes that the start of the tri season will be at least put back by several weeks.

We’re keeping this news item deliberately quite general, because with events moving so quickly, even if we go live with an update, it’s likely to be very quickly superseded.

Instead, we’ve turned our focus to ways in which you can adapt your training and preparations for the new season, in light of the restrictions now being put in place.

We’ve put together a new article containing suggestions for how you might alter your training regime to take account of likely limitations, yet still aim to keep yourself in something approaching race trim. See our article here.