Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands and now it’s Townsville’s turn, as athletes from across the world will swim, bike and run in paradise when Townsville hosts the 2021 International Triathlon Union (ITU) Multisport World Championships!

The ITU Multisport World Championships is the pinnacle for the sport of triathlon and covers a range of disciplines including duathlon, cross triathlon, aquathlon, aquabike and long-distance triathlon.

Townsville was recently announced as the host city by State Tourism Minister Kate Jones and Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill, in what will be the biggest sporting event ever to be held in the city. 

The August 2021 event will deliver significant economic outcomes to the region, attracting over 8000 athletes and spectators across two-weeks, injecting more than $16 million into the local economy.

Townsville Enterprise was proud to partner with Townsville City Council who played a lead role working with the Townsville Triathlon Festival and Tourism and Events Queensland through the rigorous pitching process. However, the hard work has paid off and delivered a tremendous outcome for Townsville North Queensland.

In order to secure the event, our community came together to showcase the incredible natural assets Townsville is blessed with such as Cape Pallarenda, Castle Hill, Mount Stuart and The Strand, all with iconic views overlooking the Coral Sea. These locations, right here in our backyard, have now been formally acknowledged by ITU as some of the best in the world to build a major sporting event around. As a part of the pitch, it was also highlighted how these attributes are complemented by our city’s world-class sporting and training facilities, and our strong track record and effective processes in place to successfully host and manage the logistic requirements of major events.

To excite multisport athletes from across the globe the theme for the 2021 Multisport World Championships in Townsville will be dubbed, ‘Race the Reef’. This is reflective of Townsville North Queensland’s position as the headquarters of the Great Barrier Reef, nature’s greatest gift to Australia and one of the seven wonders of the world. Continuing its support of local events, Townsville Enterprise was proud to provide assistance across the bidding process to secure the event in Townsville. 

“We were thrilled to assist in bringing the ITU Multisport World Championships to Townsville as we continue to cement our region’s reputation as the home of regional Australia’s best live events,” said Townsville Enterprise CEO, Patricia O’Callaghan. “Staging an event of this size and with such a strong global following is a coup for Townsville North Queensland, and we welcome the significant economic injection projected for local businesses across the duration of the event.” 

The August 2021 event will deliver significant economic outcomes to the region, attracting over 8000 athletes and spectators across two-weeks, injecting more than $16 million into the local economy.

The support that council has thrown behind the event is a testament to the belief they have in what it will do for our city and region. Townsville Mayor Jenny Hill said the global event will showcase Townsville to audiences around the world.

“Hosting such a major international sporting event will ensure thousands of fans and athletes from across the world will be staying in our hotels and eating in our restaurants, with businesses around the city getting a great boost,” Cr Hill said.

This opportunity would not have transpired without council’s assistance and the tireless efforts of Townsville Triathlon Festival President, Jamie Fitzpatrick to convince the ITU that nowhere else in the world could stage a better event than what we could here in Townsville. Jamie said the Townsville Triathlon Festival already had a well-established reputation on the Australian triathlon scene. 

“This announcement not only benefits Townsville in 2021 but will now be the catalyst for the existing festival to expand its format to include a new ‘off-road’ weekend, making it the biggest Triathlon and Multisport Festival in Australia with 22 different events and race formats across two weekends,” Jamie said. “This expanded format will bring increased economic benefit to the city in the two years leading up to the World Championships and importantly provide a significant platform for the event to continue to grow well beyond 2021.”

For further updates and to find out how you can be a part of this global event, keep across the Townsville Enterprise and Townsville Triathlon Festival Facebook pages.