The International Triathlon Union looks for new ways of staging world championships and Denmark has thus submitted an exciting bid for this vision: A Week of Peaks that should put triathlon on the agenda worldwide displaying world class athletes on world class courses. Add to this a massive program of side events consisting of cliniques & workshops and mass participation races. ITU has been on site visit in Denmark and thinks Denmark has a strong bid.
“Thanks for the interest for this new concept of the ITU. What I have experienced in Denmark is a very professional preparation of the bid from all perspectives and also in relation to the preparation of this site visit – and I’m confident that the Danish bid will be one of the strongest bid running for the 2017 event. From our perspective there are other bids as well and I’m sure that our executive board will make a careful decision of choosing the best candidate. I will give my positive reports on the Danish bid to the board,” says Gergely Markus, ITU, who visited Denmark this week.
“The ITU is creating a whole new set up for their world championships in a Multisport Festival to be launched for the very first time in 2017. We see a big potential in this new set up and Denmark has actually just handed in a bid for the event as we believe we can contribute to this new event and give it great start in 2017. Among our many ideas is a “Week of Peaks” where triathlon will be talk of town and we would initiate a massive outreach program that will promote this new concept in the years leading up to the 2017,” says Morten Fenger, Director and Sports Manager, Danish Triathlon Federation talking on behalf of the strong bidding partners Sport Event Denmark and Developing Fyn.
Ideas are often developed based on previous experience from hosting various sporting events – not necessarily from the same sport but from the sports world in general. Denmark has an impressive list of major international sporting events in the calendar and was recently ranked no. 15 on the Sportcal Global Sports Nations Index 2014.
“We are fortunate in Denmark to have many good examples on how to generate creative ideas in collaboration with the event right holders and the International Federations. The 2014 IAAF World Half Marathon is a great example: The IAAF, the Danish organisers and the host city Copenhagen came up with an innovative set-up which included 30’000 runners in a mass participation race during the same day, using the same course. This turned the event into a festive celebration of running,” says Lars Lundov, CEO, Sport Event Denmark and adds:
“We don’t have a fixed formula in terms of bidding for and staging events. We always start by listening to and learning from the international federations and the event owners and we then look into the potentials of each of the events trying to identify the DNA of each event.
”The Multisport Festival would be staged in Fyn which is a picturesque island located in the heart of Denmark. This compact setting with an impressive flexibility and experience will showcase triathlon to the world:
“With our experience in hosting big sports events Fyn 2017 will display top class presentations of every event of the ITU Multisport Festival. Athletes, teams, spectators and the sport of triathlon will experience unforgettable peaks through the week in Denmark in 2017,” says Anker Boye, mayor of Odense, the capital of Fyn.
EDITORS Notes
ITU Multisport Festival 2017:
Four world championships in one week (Cross Triathlon, Duathlon, Aquathlon and the Long Distance Triathlon)
Launch: 2017
Award of the events: May 15 2015
Danish bid: The Danish Triathlon Federation, Sport Event Denmark and Developing Fyn
In 2014: 2.107 participants in the 4 World Championships that were staged in various parts of the world.