The 2023 Arena Games Triathlon world champions will be crowned in London this weekend and British athletes will have the advantage of home support as they go for glory in the unique format, alongside the return of paratriathlon to the event programme.
Arena Games Triathlon powered by Zwift blends real-life and virtual reality as athletes will swim in the London Aquatics Centre pool before switching to smart trainers and self-powered curved treadmills for the bike and run legs on Zwift’s online platform.
Last year saw Beth Potter and Alex Yee claim the inaugural Arena Games Triathlon world titles and Potter will be in London for the defence of her title.
The world title will be awarded to the athlete with the most points at the end of the three-race series, with the results of the final in London and their best result from either Montreal or Sursee counting towards their final points totals.
There are a double number of points available at the series finale in London, so it’s still all to play for as the series reaches its conclusion in the capital.
Potter heads indoors for the first time this year after winning her first World Triathlon Championship Series gold in Abu Dhabi at the start of March. London will be Potter’s first event of this year’s series so the Commonwealth bronze medallist will need to rely on the results of other athletes if she is to win back-to-back world titles.
Gina Serano (USA) and Zsanett Bragmayer (HUN) currently top the women’s standings after their victories in Montreal and Sursee, respectively. Olivia Mathias is also in contention after her silver medal in Sursee on her Arena Games debut and, like Potter, will have the backing of the home crowd.
Under 23 world champion Kate Waugh will also line-up in the women’s event, which begins on Friday (7 April) with the heats, as will Katie Rodda when she competes over this format for the first time.
On the men’s side, Jack Stanton-Stock starts his home event in fourth place overall, thanks to his third place in Montreal at the opening race of the series. He’ll be joined in London by Dan Dixon, who was fifth in Montreal.
The final event will also see the return of paratriathlon to the Arena Games Triathlon programme for the first time in two years, and the first in front of a live crowd, with four British athletes on the London start list.
British PTS4 champion Finley Jakes and Commonwealth PTVI athlete Oscar Kelly will be in action, less than a week after they won British titles at the British Paraduathlon Championships.
Jakes and Kelly both competed at the Arena Games in 2021, whilst this year’s event will be the first time Louis Rolfe MBE (PTS2) and Colin Wallace (PTS3) have experienced paratriathlon indoors.
Both are into their second year in the sport with Rolfe, a Paralympic and world champion in para-cycling, and Wallace, a national champion rower for Scotland and a medal-winning para-cyclist, taking part in their first paratriathlons last year.
The paratriathlon waves get Saturday’s programme underway from 14:45 (BST), followed by the Arena Games Triathlon women’s final at 17:30 and the men’s final at 18:30, broadcast live on Eurosport, SLT TV and triathlonlive.tv.
There is racing also taking place on Friday (7 April) with the men’s and women’s heats seeing the top-two automatically progressing through to Saturday’s final. Third to seventh will head into Saturday morning’s repechages, along with the next five fastest athletes.
Both the men’s and women’s finals will be contested by 10 athletes over three stages with the third and final stage a pursuit based off the cumulative time difference from the opening two stages.
For further information on Arena Games Triathlon powered by Zwift please visit the Super League Triathlon website. The start lists can be viewed here.
