EUROPEAN TRIATHLON UNION ETU EVENT STATUS: 2001 – 2016 1. INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this document is to provide details about the status of the past and current ETU Events, including strengths and weaknesses. Recommendations will follow each section to provide an opportunity for further discussion with ITU and at the various levels at ETU. ETU main goals on events are: a) Increase the general participation of triathlon and all related multisport in all age-group categories within Europe; b) Provide opportunities for young athletes to access the sport; c) Keep gender balance on all level of competitions; d) Provide a pathway to grow from youth athlete to elite athletes competing at the Olympic Games. 2. GENERAL: A thorough review of the Competition System is required due to: a) the growing number of ITU events in Europe; b) the increased number of participants in all categories; c) the growing demands of Paratriathlon being integrated in the sport; d) the increased number of private international event organising companies wanting to align with our system. 3. ETU TRIATHLON EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS: is the main event of ETU. The event package consist of the following races: elite Olympic Distance Triathlon, the junior Sprint Triathlon event, the Age Group OD and sprint Triathlon, the elite and junior mixed relay, an opening ceremony and the organisation of the ETU Annual General Assembly. ETU is asking to pay an event fee and prize money for both the elite individual event as the elite mixed relay. Having the event live broadcasting is recommended but not mandatory. This means that the LOC has to invest a substantial amount into this organisation. As a return on this investment, the LOCs have been given the majority of the marketing and TV rights. Money usually comes from public funding, sponsorship and entry fees and the percentage depends on the city, country, …. To find a LOC to organise the event, ETU is opening bids annually. 3.1 Scheduling: a) bid process: the bid period for the elite European Championships opens approximately 2 and a half years prior to the event, while the event is assigned 2 years prior to the event date. Regarding the other events (U23, youth) the bid period opens 1 and a half year prior to the event is assigned 1 year prior to the event date. b) event date: the event cannot be in conflict with a WTS and/or WC event. Usually the Championships take place between mid-June and mid-July with the exception of an Olympic year were the event will take place earlier during the year (April/May). 1 3.2 Host countries: From 2001 to 2016, 12 different countries hosted the ETU Triathlon European Championships. 4 of those countries; Spain, Switzerland, Portugal and Czech Republic hosted the event twice with Portugal and Czech Republic hosted this event in the same city; Lisbon and Karlovy Vary respectively. 3.3 Participation: The ETU Triathlon European Championships events focus on elite athletes for performance excellence and age-group athletes for high participation numbers. a) Programme increase by including the following categories/events; - U23 (2005) - youth relay (2005) - paratriathlon (2006) - mixed relay for elite and juniors (2009) - Age Group sprint (2010) - Elite sprint (2016) - Youth individual race (2016) - Club Championships (2016) (there have been already Triathlon Club European Championships in 1997, 1998 and 1999 in a team trial format for both men and women) b) Number of days: Increased from 2 day (2001-2004) to more than 5 days event due to an increased programme. This often resulted in many competitions taking place under less than ideal conditions. Therefore the European Championships have been split up in multiple events: - 2005: split in 2: 1. elite-juniors, AG and para 2. U23 and youth relay - 2016: split in 5: 1. para, elite OD, juniors, mixed relay 2. Elite sprint 3. U23 individual and relay 4. Youth individual and relay 5. Club championships c) Participant Increase: started with around 800 participants, now around 2000, as well as a 2 to 4 additional numbers with support personnel and family members, this generates a significant positive impact for the LOCs and cities. The elite, U23 and junior competitions have a maximum field of 75 athletes, which is filled at the junior men’s categories and almost with the U23 and elite men. In the women’s categories the field is around 75% full in the juniors category and 60% full at the U23 and elite category. The Youth European Championships are organised in a relay format for both men and women. In each team are 3 athletes. With the exception of 2009 there were always more men teams than women teams on a ratio of 3:2. The European Championships welcomed the first male paratriathletes in 2006 and the first female paratriathletes in 2009. 2 1400 para women 1200 para men elite women 1000 elite men 800 U23 women U23 men 600 junior women3 junior men2 400 youth women youth men 200 AG women 0 AG men 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 Table 1: participation level Triathlon European Championships all categories 2005-2009 Starting 2010 ETU started not only to organise the Triathlon European Championships for AG in Olympic Distance but as well on Sprint Distance. The last couple of years the sprint is organised on Friday while the OD takes place on Sunday, which makes athletes combining both events. This resulted in an increase of AG participation especially during the last 3 years. 2500 para women para men 2000 elite women elite men 1500 U23 women U23 men junior women 1000 junior men youth women 500 youth men AG women 0 AG men 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Table 2: participation level Triathlon European Championships all categories 2010-2016 Please note that in 2016 ETU started with an individual European Championships event over a semi-final/final format to give as much as possible Youth athletes the possibility to participate. 3 After the individual event there was as well a mixed relay event. This resulted in a huge increase of participation in this category. Also in 2016 ETU started with the Triathlon Club European Championships. This first edition 18 clubs from 10 National Federations participated at a mixed relay format European Championships. d) Qualification has been refined: ELITE and ELITE Paratriathlon are based on both ITU and ETU rankings; U23, Juniors and youth are based on quotas from Continental Championships and Age Groups are a fixed quota per country with extra for the Host NF. The number of entries and amount of promotion of the Triathlon European Championships for Age-Group athletes are the sole responsibility of National Federations. DISCUSSION POINTS: 1. Number of athletes participating in the different categories as well as the maximum number per NF; 2. Increasing the amount of Age Group athletes participating 3. Adding AG Para to the package 4. Package the programme of the European Championships; elite OD and sprint, U23, Juniors, Para, AG sprint, AG OD, mixed relay for elite, U23 and Juniors, Triathlon Club Championships 5. U23: OD or sprint 6. European Cup test event to be conducted before hosting the European Championships 4. ETU EUROPAN CUP EVENTS: Since the WTS was established in 2009, the ETU Triathlon European Cup events Cup became a third series with top 20 athletes almost never competing. Over the past 8 years, the ETU European Cup event have had to find a place in the ITU event structure and LOCs and Host NFs have struggled with the reality of lower quality fields and a decrease in popularity amongst all stakeholders. 4.1 Scheduling: a) bid process: the bid period for the ETU Triathlon European Cups opens approximately 1 and a half years prior to the start of the season while the events are assigned immediately after the European Cup final of the previous year. b) event dates: ETU is trying while building up the event calendar to have no conflict with another ETU European Cup in the same weekend and also to avoid conflicts with ITU World Cup and WTS Series. 2001-2008: There were 8-17 ETU Cups events each year, in 6 to 13 countries, starting in April and finishing in October. 2009-2016: There were 10 to 15 ETU cups each year, in 7 to 12 countries, starting March and finishing in October. 4 18 16 14 12 10 ITU 8 ETU 6 4 2 0 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Table 3: Amount of ITU events and ETU events per year 2001-2016 4.2 Host cities/countries: a) Host cities: Between 2001 and 2008, 53 different cities hosted European Cup events. Between 2009 and 2016, 40 different cities hosted European Cup events. On the charts below you can see the cities that hosted more than one European Cup per period. Brno, Eilat, Egirdir, Lough Neigh, Zagreb, Sofia, San Remo, Split Belgrade, Schliersee, Praia Da Vittoria, Kedzyrzyn Kozle , Erdek, Palermo Estoril Zundert, Tarzo Alanya, Echternach, Geneva Holten 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Table 4: Cities organizing more than one ETU European Cup in the period 2001-2008 5 Brasschaat, Egirdir, Pontevedra, Constanta, Riga, Kyiv, Melilla Banyoles, Penza, Cremona, Madrid Istanbul, Tartu Alanya, Geneva Antalya, Holten Karlovy Vary, Quarteira 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Table 5: Cities organizing more than one ETU European Cup in the period 2009-2016 It should be noted that between 2001 and 2016 Holten (NED) hosted 13 European Cups, Geneva (SUI) and Alanya (TUR) 11, Karlovy Vary (CZE) 9 and Quarteira (POR) 8 European Cups.