Later this summer the world will bear witness to a brand-new format of triathlon competition, the Collins Cup.
Taking inspiration from golf’s Ryder Cup and organised by the Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO), the competition will pit three teams of 12 triathletes against each other in the race for glory and (a remarkable) prize purse of $1.15m.
A line-up of Team Europe, Team USA and Team International will be competing for honours, with legends such as Chrissie Wellington, Simon Whitfield and Mark Allen heading up the teams as captains.
It’s fair to say there is a lot of interest and excitement around the Collins Cup and, with the release of the Beyond Human feature-length documentary, it’s about to ramp up further.
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Introducing... Beyond Human
Beyond Human follows serial winners Lionel Sanders (CAN), Sebastien Kienle (GER) and Heather Jackson (USA) as they navigate a tough year and fight to stay at the very top in long-distance triathlon ahead of the inaugural Collins Cup.
Viewers can expect unadulterated access to the athletes’ training, racing and personal lives, both through the good times and the bad, including injury mishaps and mental hurdles.
Produced by Noah Media Group, the company behind critically acclaimed football documentary Finding Jack Charlton, this is the first of a two-part series, with the next episode expected to arrive a little later.
Watch the trailer below to get a glimpse into the documentary, or watch the full 52 minutes of Beyond Human now.
Beyond Human trailer
What's the Collins Cup?
The Collins Cup was due to go ahead in May 2020 but, like most things, was postponed because of the pandemic and will now take place on 28 August 2021.
The race itself will be a middle-distance non-drafting format (1.9km swim, 90km bike, 21.1km run) with each team putting forward one athlete to race against each other in a three-person ‘matchplay’ battle.
This will be the case for each team member, who’ll need to battle their own three-person individual contest. The 12 races will be staggered 10 minutes apart with the points from each individual race deciding who will be crowned overall winners.
Qualification is based around a points system, with points being awarded depending on where each athlete finishes in an eligible race. An athlete's place in the qualification table will be determined by averaging the points from the highest two of (i) any races completed between 1 December 2020 and 9 August 2021, and (ii) the average of the athlete’s best three races from 1 December 2018 and 31 December 2020.
As it stands, British triathletes Lucy Charles-Barclay, Holly Lawrence and Joe Skipper currently hold places for Team Europe, but there's still plenty to play for up to the qualification cut off date on 9 August.
With big names such as Alistair Brownlee, Javier Gomez and Nicola Spirig still in contention and almost a dozen eligible races yet to take place, watch this space...
Stay up to date with the latest news from the Collins Cup by clicking here.
