This weekend Tongyeong, South Korea welcomes the international triathlon community for the start of the ITU World Triathlon Championship Series.
The series sponsored by Suunto, will encompass seven global cities before the grand final on Australia's Gold Coast in September. Some of the world's top athletes will descend on the South Korean city as they look to start their seasons in earnest and pocket some of the $150,000 USD prize money.
Covering a two lap 1500m swim course, a five lap 40km cycle and a four lap 10km run. proceedings get underway on Saturday with the womens race. The womens field is one of the strongest ever assembled with Athens Olympic champion Kate Allen from Austria, Australia's Beijing bronze medallist Emma Moffat and the 2008 World Champion, Great Britain's Helen Jenkins all competing.
The Mens race takes place 24 hours later and sees the double Olympic medallists, Simon Whitfield from Canada and Bevan Docherty from New Zealand competing against Australia's Oceania Champion Brad Kahlefeldt and double 2009 World Cup winner, Courtney Atkinson. Also competing is last year's Tongyeong winner, Great Britain's Tim Don and three time European champion Frederic Belaubre from France.
With the first event kicking off tomorrow, to mark the partnership with the ITU, Suunto are launching a number of different fitness watches and accessories as part of the Suunto Triathlon Collection. Available now are special edition coloured Foot PODs which are compatible with the Suunto t3c, t4c and t6c. Available from next month are the limited edition Suunto t3c Black Arrow HRM Watch and the Suunto t6c Red Arrow HRM watch. Both watches feature aggressive designs perfect for urbanites and are available for a limited time only, with only 3000 of the t3c Black Arrow being produced.
