Les McDonald receives Olympic Order
The Council of the Olympic Order awarded Les McDonald, honorary President of the International Triathlon Union, with the Olympic Order, for his outstanding services to the Olympic Movement.
This was announced in December by Jacques Rogge, President of the International Olympic Committee.
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ITU Family Newsletter - December 19, 2008
The BG Legacy
As the 2008 triathlon season comes to a close, so too does one of the sport's most beneficial partnerships to date. Over $5-million (US funds) was poured directly into the development of triathlon through development programmes, event hosting and media. It all began when BG Group, a world leader in natural gas, decided in early 2006 that it would invest in the International Triathlon Union (ITU) and the Olympic sport of triathlon.
Click here to read more
2009 WCS & World Cup Schedule
The calendar for the 2009 Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Series and ITU World Cup Series is now available on triathlon.org.
Click here to view the calendar and for more details.
ITU Athlete & Coach Scholarships
The International Triathlon Union is now accepting applications for the 2009 ITU Sport Development Athlete and Coach Scholarships. The primary objective of the scholarship programme is to identify and provide support, resources and expertise to athletes from emerging and developing National Federations to compete at World Cup, World Championship and Olympic levels.
Click here for more details
Taking Applications for TEAM ITU-SD
The highly successful TEAM ITU-SD (formerly TEAM BG) programme is continuing in 2009 with four opportunities for athletes from developing and emerging federations. Visit the ITU Sport Development section of triathlon.org for more information and the 2009 qualifying events.
Click here for more details
ITU Officials Course in China
This past week ITU Events staff visited Beijing , China for the final session of a three year programme to train and grow the level of officials and event organisers in the lead up to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Thirty-one officials from all over China attended the sessions that began in 2005 for the ITU World Cup. This legacy will run into the 2011 ITU World Championships scheduled to be held in the Chinese capital with thousands of triathletes in attendance.
ITU Office Closure
The ITU Offices will be closed from Decemeber 20th to January 4th
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Forwarded from the Tony Welsh's letter to his team:
Guys you want to get signed up for this if you haven't done so yet. This is going to be a cool race! A bunch of us went there on Sunday to check out the course, and whilst it will certainly not be a sprint tri, as it will be a bit slower in parts, it is shorter than a sprint and it will be good fun on a great course in lovely surroundings.
Swim is beautiful, it is the clearest cleanest water I have ever raced in in well over 20 years of racing, and all set within a beautiful curved bay. We swam out from a gently shelving beach for the 250m from shore and it was still so clear you can see the sand and marine life
on the sea floor - its only actually about 5 meters deep at this point and very clear.
Bike route has high quality, smooth tarmac on all but the 1km section outside Anvaya. It is a hilly course, but easily cycleable - (even after 60kms of the Subic hills en route to here on Sunday, but on race day we will all have fresh legs) yes it is steep in a couple of
places - but nothing like Puento Fuego last year!. Between the two steeper sections on the way up there are both flat and easier gradients to recover on, and neither of us struggled on the way up, and my partner was Diego who although has the stamina of youth on his side has in fact only two weeks of biking in his legs, and he overtook me a couple of times, so if a relative novice can bike this hill, anyone can! But you do not want a TT bike, a road bike is essential here.
The 1km section on the road outside Anyaya has a gentle gradient, but is concrete rather than ultra smooth Tarmac. Coming
back into Anyaya it is mostly downhill, where for safety TRAP are saying no overtaking, however on the entire decent to the transition there are 3 sections of flat / uphill where you can overtake. The whole route is lovely, going through manicured forest, streams, mango trees and decorative shrubs with views of the sea and surrounding hills.
Run route is 90% flat with a small slope in the first couple of hundred meters and another one on the back section near the
villas, again a pretty route around the lagoon with trees and shrubs all around.
And after the race there are swimming pools, restaurants, sun beds and massage shelters to relax in and amongst! Hope we can get a big turn out for this end of season race.
Cheers
Tony Welsh