World Triathlon

World Triathlon National Federation Services and Development continue to share an overview of the development and education activities during the month.

NATIONAL FEDERATION SERVICES UPDATES
Pontevedra (ESP) will host the XXXVI World Triathlon Congress in 2023
World Triathlon confirms the date and the venue of the XXXVI World Triathlon Congress to be held on Thursday,  21 September 2023 in Pontevedra, Spain in conjunction with the 2023 World Triathlon Championship Finals Pontevedra.

Keep your Good Standing Status - 2023 Membership Obligations
We are getting closer to the deadline that marks the completion of the annual membership obligations set by the World Triathlon Contitution. Before 1st of May 2023, the members must pay the annual membership fee (300 USD), submit the National Federation Survey (which is now available) and their 2022 Financial Statements. Please remember those are mandatory requirements to maintain your NF good standing status with World Triathlon.

REMINDER - AFFILIATION DOCUMENTS REVISION
In the meantime we kindly remind those members who haven’t completed our affiliation documents (Constitution, NOC Recognition Letter, Compliance Letter) revision.

Next edition of the NFs Open Hours in April
Do you feel lost among qualifications for Major Games, various ranking systems or available points to be earned on races from your national championships to the World Triathlon Series?  Would you like to deepen your understanding of the Olympic or Paralympic Qualification, the requirements for the World Beach Games in Bali or any other Continental Games in 2023?
You may get all the answers on the next National Federations Open Hours on 19-20 April conducted by the TRI Sport Department. 
April 19-20, 2023 |  Qualification Criteria and Ranking Systems and Points linked to TRI Events

Africa and Europe are the firsts to sign the 2023 Development Agreement with World Triathlon
World Triathlon Executive Board recently approved the Africa Triathlon Development Agreement and the Europe Triathlon Development Agreement for 2023. All signed development agreements can be found on triathlon.org: Documents • World Triathlon.

2021 National Federation Survey Report and launch of the 2022 National Federation Survey
Finally, the 2022 National Federation Survey has been launched and NFs have a month to complete the survey before 1 May 2023. The 2022 NF Survey will have an updated set of questions on Good Governance Principles as one of the priorities of World Triathlon for the upcoming years. It will help to understand the current situation and how to design and develop our action plan and education to improve the implementation of Good Governance Principles across all stakeholders. The summary of the 2021 National Federation Survey Report can be found here.

IN THE SERVICE OF DEVELOPMENT REGIONAL EVENTS ACROSS AMERICA
Americas Triathlon continues to strengthen sport development through hosting Development Regional Cups across the continent. By the end of March three events have been completed in Bolivia, Guatemala and Puerto Rico. All events are linked with event, technical official, coach, athlete development or educational initiatives considering the needs of the host country and its subregion. The success of the events is well shown in the significant increase of participants comparing to last year when Americas Triathlon started with this specific event.

2023 World Triathlon Development Regional Cup Cochabamba 19 Mar, 2023 •  Cochabamba, Bolivia •
2023 World Triathlon Development Regional Cup Amatique Bay 18 - 19 Feb, 2023 •  Amatique Bay, Guatemala
2023 World Triathlon Development Regional Cup Puerto Rico 12 Feb, 2023 •  Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico •

The upcoming event will be hosted in Barbados which will be linked with the 2023 Bridgetown World Triathlon Technical Officials Level 1 Seminar.

Besides Americas Triathlon, Asia will also host Development Regional Cups in 2023 in conjunction with an Athlete Development Camp.
2023 World Triathlon Development Regional Cup Salalah 8 Jul, 2023 •  Salalah, Oman.
For more details about the World Triathlon Development Regional Cup, please visit https://www.triathlon.org/uploads/docs/Bid_2023_Development-Regional-Cup.pdf

ATHLETE DEVELOPMENT
2023 Pula European Triathlon – World Triathlon Performance Development Camp.

The 2023 Pula European Triathlon – World Triathlon Performance Development Camp was organised for the members of 2023 Team Europe for the first time ever with different objectives. The main goal was to measure and evaluate athletes’ capabilities with scientific testing in order to provide their coaches and national federations with an assessment and tool for their athletes’ development strategy. The experts of the Ljubljana University executed the functional spiroergometry on the run followed by swim and bike tests where valuable information was collected as well.

Additionally, it also created a great opportunity to develop working relationships, build rapport and networking among athletes and head coaches before they attend a Team Europe project in the season.

“Besides the Europe Team projects in Olsztyn, Wels, Ceuta and Yenisehir, Europe Triathlon plans to organise another Performance Development Camp for the athletes that couldn’t attend this camp as we have 32 selected athletes for Team Europe in 2023”. Zeljko Bijuk (CRO), Development Coordinator, Europe Triathlon, summarized the next step.

Vicent Beltran (ESP) and Milos Petelin (SLO) led the camp with the assistance of Ljudmila Medan (SRB). There were in total 13 athletes from Bosnia & Herzegovina, Greece, Estonia, Latvia, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Serbia & Turkey benefiting from the pioneer programme.

Magdalena Stankovska, MKD, F
Kristiana Maskava, LAT, F
Elza Sipkova, LAT, F
Iva Pavlovic, SRB, F
Grete Maria Savitsch, EST, F
Lana Gavrlovic, SRB, F

Belmin Godinjak, BIH, M
Stefan Delev, MKD, M
Francis Daniels Vegeris.LAT,M
Louis Woodgate, GRE, M
Taha Eren Cosgun, TUR, M
Emir Araci, TUR, M

COACH EDUCATION
Coach Revalidation
Similar to previous years, the regular revalidation process was open from 1 February until 31 March. During this period 710 coaches took the time to review rule changes, anti-doping updates, revised and updated modules of the coaches’ course and solve training planning tasks relevant to their levels. This year World Triathlon put Safeguarding in the focus of all development activities, therefore participating individuals were also mandated to complete the “Level 1 Safeguarding in Triathlon” module. Ticking off annual revalidation tasks each year add up at the end of the 4-year validity period of the coaching certificate and result in the automatic extension of the certificate with additional 4 years. Continental Coordinators and NF representatives are getting more active in this process by taking ownership and following up the progress of their coaches every year.

Since 2023 World Triathlon Development is continuously providing a return opportunity to those coaches, who were either certified before 2014 (under to the outdated coach education curriculum) or did not complete any of their regular annual revalidation tasks (and therefore their certificates expired). Since the launch of the pay-based non-regular revalidation option twelve (12) coaches from six Asian and European countries have successfully rejoined the World Triathlon Coaching Pathway. Seven of these participants are now recognised again as World Triathlon Level 2 Certified Coaches, and three as World Triathlon Level 1 Certified Coaches. They all have full access to the e-learning content of the coaches’ course and will be required to follow the regular revalidation protocol in the future. Applications for this option are continuously available here.

2023 Al-Khobar World Triathlon Coaches Level 1 Course

After successful development projects in Saudi Arabia since 2021, the Saudi Triathlon NF is further investing in their own community. This course aims to develop local coaches who’ll be collaborating with the NF; in order to create a good base of athletes who’ll be representing the country in the future locally, regionally and then globally.  Saudi NF also opened the remaining spots of the course to international participants and was very generous in helping participants with their logistics. The course was delivered by Anthony Joseph Lozada (PHI) and Franz Studer (RSA). Firas Al-Hmood (JOR), Asia Triathlon Development Coordinator was also onsite assisting the course.

“The course was an absolute success and I would say that everything ran smoothly without any problems. Firas did a great job preparing everything and he had a great local team that assisted him all the way. The venue and all its facilities helped create a positive and effective learning environment. The venue was very private and secure which is why we had no distractions at all. Plus the awesome facilities of the course helped Franz and myself facilitate with ease. Many thanks to World Triathlon for once again giving me the opportunity to do what I love and that’s to share my knowledge in triathlon through being a facilitator.,” Anthony Joseph Lozada (PHI).

“This seminar goes beyond coach & athlete. It will help me to have those who have ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder) and ADD (Attention Deficit Disorder) starting with my son,”  Florie (PHI).

“I come from a Bedouin community. I believed in old school models: Go hard or go home. But after this course, I realise that it will be small steps repeated day by day over the long haul,” Mohammed (KSA).

“This course inspired me to be the best coach that I can be. It was through the facilitation of the course and the way we got our feedback.” ~ Zainab Rushdi (KSA)

TECHNICAL OFFICIALS EDUCATION
Technical Officials Revalidation E-seminars started
The Technical Officials Level 1 Revalidation E-Seminar (English) just started. 163 TOs from 49 NFs and 5 continents signed up to the course. 2023 World Triathlon Technical Officials Level 1 Revalidation E-Seminar (Spanish) will kick off from 3 April followed by the 2023 World Triathlon Technical Officials Level 2 Revalidation E-Seminar starting in mid-April.

Technical Officials Modules on the Education & Knowledge Hub
After the Technical Officials Education Advisory Group Meeting earlier this year,  all the following modules designed for support events’ delivery are now updated and available on the World Triathlon Education and Knowledge Hub. All relevant Technical Officials have been informed accordingly.

OLYMPIC SOLIDARITY PROJECTS
Successful DNSS project in Kyrgyzstan boosted by Triathlon Ireland mentorship  
After the successful completion of the Development of National Sports System (DNSS) project granted by the IOC Olympic Solidarity, Lena Polchenkova, Secretary General of the Kyrgyz Republic Triathlon Federation, shared an update about their new way of working thanks to the OS support and the mentorship with Triathlon Ireland led by Darren Coombes, CEO.
1. Sponsorship and marketing: We started working in more detail on proposals for different companies and trying to make them very individual for each company. We are also introducing surveys to help evaluate the work with partners and sponsors during and after PR campaigns. We are trying to develop social networks, so everybody can feel that the triathlon is for everyone.
2. Establishing an Athlete Commission and working with athletes regularly.
3. Club System: We finished everything in January and presented in February, and we already have three (3) clubs and several potential ones preparing their applications. Our amateur athletes very much appreciated this idea.

Project Mentor Darren Coombes said “It was a real privilege to work with and share ideas with a dynamic, ambitious National Federation. The DNSS project offers a fantastic opportunity to developing Federations, with wraparound supports across all areas of the sport - Lena and her team took full advantage of the programme and I was glad to be a small part of the team providing support. We look forward to seeing triathlon continue to prosper in Kyrgyzstan, and in particular the growth of their decentralised club system which has so much potential.”

Small steps to make triathlon popular and sustainable in Kyrgyzstan,” said Lena Polchenkova.

Stay tuned on TRI Development & NF Services: Development • World Triathlon.