The Salford Triathlon was an international-level triathlon

Triathlon

A triathlon is a multi-sport event involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance events. While many variations of the sport exist, triathlon, in its most popular form, involves swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances...

 event held annually from 2000 to 2007 in the city of Salford

City of Salford

The City of Salford is a city and metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Salford, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Eccles, Swinton-Pendlebury, Walkden and Irlam which apart from Irlam each have a population of over...

 in north west England

North West England

North West England, informally known as The North West, is one of the nine official regions of England.North West England had a 2006 estimated population of 6,853,201 the third most populated region after London and the South East...

. It was the only United Kingdom leg of the International Triathlon Union

International Triathlon Union

The International Triathlon Union or ITU is the international governing body for the multi-sport disciplines of triathlon, duathlon, aquathlon and other nonstandard variations...

's Triathlon World Cup

ITU Triathlon World Cup

The ITU Triathlon World Cup is an annual series of triathlon races staged around the world. The series is organised by the International Triathlon Union , the world governing body of the sport. BG Group was the title sponsor of the series from 2000 to 2008...

 during this time.

History

With the sport of triathlon becoming increasingly popular, in 2000 Greater Manchester’s councils created a role for a Triathlon Development Officer who would encourage the sport at a grass roots

Grassroots

A grassroots movement is one driven by the politics of a community. The term implies that the creation of the movement and the group supporting it are natural and spontaneous, highlighting the differences between this and a movement that is orchestrated by traditional power structures...

 level in schools and the community. The interest was incredible and it was from here that the Millennium Waterfronts Triathlon was born.

The MWT combined the north west regional championships and national championships for under 21s - with 500 people competing for the titles, including Richard Allen, Richard Stannard

Richard Stannard (triathlete)

Richard Stannard is a triathlete from Great Britain and the current 2011 ITU Aquathlon World Champion.He was British Triathlon Champion in 2001, Aquathlon World Champion in 2003 and 2006 and Biathle World Champion in 2005, 2007 and 2010.He also led the swim leg of the London Triathlon for ten...

, and Jodie Swallow

Jodie Swallow

Jodie Swallow is a British triathlete from Loughborough, Leicestershire. She is the 2010 Ironman 70.3 champion as well as the winner of the 2009 ITU Long Distance Triathlon World Championships. In 2004, she represented Great Britain at the Summer Olympics competing in triathlon, placing...

.

The success of that first event was proved when Salford won the right to hold the National Triathlon Championships in 2001 - attracting 1000 competitors from all over the world, including a host of big names for the elite races, like Simon Whitfield

Simon Whitfield

Simon St. Quentin Whitfield is an Olympic triathlon champion from Canada.-Biography:Whitfield was born in Kingston, Ontario. As a young boy he played soccer but at age 11 began triathlon, honing his early competitive skills in the Canadian Kids of Steel program. By age 15 he was pursuing...

 and Leanda Cave

Leanda Cave

Leanda Cave is a British triathlete. Cave competes internationally for both Great Britain and Wales. She lives and trains in Tucson, Arizona.-Early life:...

.

It was the first time the nationals had come to the North of the country - John Lunt, Race Director, said at the time:

"This has been the best course in the country for competitors. Having a closed city centre course is very rare and lets athletes go right into the heart of Manchester - creating a fantastic atmosphere between them and the spectators."

Those national championships also proved to be an important rehearsal for the Triathlon events

Triathlon at the 2002 Commonwealth Games

These page shows the results of the triathlon competition at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, United Kingdom, when the sport was for the first time on the program. The men's and the women's races were both held on 4 August 2002.-Men's competition:-Women's competition:- Triathlon medal...

 at the 2002 Commonwealth Games

2002 Commonwealth Games

The 2002 Commonwealth Games were held in Manchester, England from 25 July to 4 August 2002. The XVII Commonwealth Games was the largest multi-sport event ever to be held in the UK, eclipsing London's 1948 Summer Olympics in numbers of teams and athletes participating.After the 1996 Manchester...

 in Manchester - which ran over the now tried and tested course. Over 100,000 spectators lined the route to view one of the few free Games events and the atmosphere they created was amazing as Simon Whitfield and Carol Montgomery

Carol Montgomery

Carol Montgomery is an athlete from Canada who competes in the triathlon. She won the bronze medal at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Canada, and the gold medal at the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England.Carol attended Simon Fraser University in the mid 80's where she honed...

 raced to gold!

World Cup

A legacy of the Commonwealth Games event was the awarding of a leg of the 2003 World Cup to Salford. Further successful events in the following years allowed promoters Salford City Council and event operator Human Race to bid to host the 2010 ITU Triathlon World Championships. The bid however was unsuccessful.

The event was not held in 2008 because of its proximity to the Olympic Games, the absence of BBC Sport

BBC Sport

BBC Sport is the sports division of the BBC. It became a fully dedicated division of the BBC in 2000. It incorporates programmes such as Match of the Day, Grandstand , Test Match Special, Ski Sunday, Rugby Special and coverage of Formula One motor racing, MotoGP and the Wimbledon Tennis...

 coverage, and major building work (part of MediaCityUK) close to the area usually used for transition.

The future

The Salford Triathlon has been set a provisional return date of 26 July 2009. With the Olympic Games

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

due to be held in London in 2012, it is possible the World Cup may not return to Salford since as part of London's preparation it must hold an international-level test event on the Olympic course at least once in the years prior to the Games. Whilst possible, it is unlikely the ITU would hold more than one World Cup event in the United Kingdom in any one year.

Previous World Cup winners

This table lists the previous winners of the World Cup events held in Salford from 2003 to 2007.

Year	Elite Men	Elite Women
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007