Today Friday 12 March, previous Kona champion Jan Frodeno and Kona runner up Lucy Charles-Barclay are part of the stellar line up racing Challenge Miami, one of the first pro races of the season. They will be joined by top pro triathletes Lionel Sanders, and Sarah Crowley. (You can find a full list of the pro athletes racing here).
The shorter middle-distance style race takes place at the Homestead-Miami Speedway. Athletes will swim the 1.6km in the lake adjacent to the venue, while the 62.7km bike leg begins at the Speedway before heading out on x17 laps of a 3.5km loop. Athletes finish with a 16.9km run. Total distance for this unique Challenge race will be 81.2km.
In the women's race it is hard to see anyone other than Charles-Barclay leading the swim, but will she be able to hang onto that lead? We'll have our eye on Paula Findlay, Challenge Daytona 2020 winner too, who pipped Haug to the post after she suffered a 2min penalty in the nail-biting race last December. In the men's race with Ali Brownlee noticeably absent, all eyes will be on Frodeno - will he dominate from the off? Or will Canadian Lionel Saunders be the one to watch? Brits will be cheering for Fenella Langridge and Tom Davies, who are both set to compete, having both finished in the top 15 at Daytona - but do they have more to give?
Sadly 2019 Kona champ Anne Haug had to pull out at the last minute after testing positive for Covid-19
A noticeably more frugal affair than Daytona where winner Findlay took home $100k, Challenge Miami will distribute a $50,000 prize purse amongst the top ten male and female finishers, with amounts from $6,600 to $1,000 set to be dished out. The chance to gain PTO World Raking points will also be available to the top six, these points will count towards the innovative Collins Cup selections, set to take place later in the race season.
Kick off is at 18:00 GMT and to find out how to watch the livestream, visit Challenge Miami’s Facebook page, or its website
“We have the top athletes in the world competing, including #1 in the world, Jan Frodeno, #2 in the world, Lucy Charles-Barclay and 16 more athletes from the top 20 triathletes in the world,” said Bill Christy, from Challenge North America. “This race will be something you’ve never seen before. The competition is bringing the exhilarating speed and intense athleticism of triathlon right to your living room! We think it may be an even more action packed race than seen at Daytona as the bike course utilises the road course and the run course uses the oval.”