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Image source, Super League Triathlon

What is it?

Super League Triathlon's Championship Series contains four races and sees athletes earn points towards the overall leaderboard. At the end of each season, the leaderboard decides the male and female Super League Triathlon Championship Series winners.

There are four events in the 2021 Championship Series: London (5 Sept), Munich (12 Sept), Jersey (19 Sept) Malibu (25 Sept).

Super League is the only globally broadcast series that answers the question: Who is the fastest triathlete in the world?

The series also offers a prize purse of $1.25m (just under £904,000), ensuring the best talent on the start line and competitive racing.

What is the format?

Super League Triathlon has four formats: Enduro, Triple Mix, Equalizer or Eliminator. The standard distances are 300m swim, 4km bike and 1.6km run.

The London leg will see athletes complete in the Triple Mix format. Athletes have a mass start and race swim-bike-run in stage one, before run-bike-swim in stage two. Stage three follows a pursuit style start - based on the athletes' times so far - and is done in a bike-swim-run format.

The winner is the first person to cross the line at the end of stage three. Athletes are eliminated at the end of a lap if they have fallen more than 90 seconds behind the leader.

In London points are awarded for the top 15 - with the winner earning 15 points and 15th place earning one point.

Is there anything else I need to know?

New for 2021 is the introduction of SLT teams - with athletes striding for team success alongside individual glory. There are five teams: Sharks (managed by Michelle Dillon), Rhinos (managed by Ronnie Schildknecht, Cheetahs (managed by Annie Emmerson), Eagles (managed by Tim Don) and Scorpions (managed by Chris McCormack).

The three-highest placed men and women from each team at every race of this season's SLT will contribute the points earned as individuals to their team's total. Points earned via the swim, bike and run leaderboards will also count.

Image source, Super League Triathlon

Image source, Super League Triathlon

There are 20 confirmed participants in the men's race, and 21 in the women's race.

Here's who is competing, and what team they are racing for:

British athletes in bold

SLT Rhinos

Men: Jake Birtwhistle, Gordon Benson, Kenji Nener and Jannik Schaufler

Women: Katie Zaferes, Rachel Klamer, Valerie Barthelemy and Yuko Takahashi

SLT Sharks

Men: Hayden Wilde, Tayler Reid, Jonas Schomburg and Vasco Vilaca

Women: Non Stanford, Beth Potter, Carolina Routier, Simone Ackermann and Gillian Sanders

SLT Cheetahs

Men: Jonny Brownlee, Alessandro Fabian, Tamas Toth and Aaron Royle

Women: Sophie Coldwell, Anna Godoy, Leonie Periault and Maya Kingma

SLT Eagles

Men: Seth Rider, Alex Yee, Max Studer and Marco van der Stel

Women: Jess Learmouth, Taylor Spivey, Vicky Holland, Vittoria Lopes

SLT Scorpions

Men: Vincent Luis, Mario Mola, Matt Hauser and Shachar Sagiv

Women: Cassandre Beaugrand, Georgia Taylor-Brown, Alice Betto and Emilie Morier

Image source, Getty Images

As part of the build-up to this race Australia's Matt Hauser, who won gold in the mixed relay at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast, spoke to ´óÏó´«Ã½ Radio 5 Live about the event.

Here's what he had to say...

"Super League Triathlon is all about the spectators and the entertainment. It is basically smashing ourselves for the entertainment of others. It should be electric out there!

"We enjoy smashing ourselves for others - it's alright. You get a natural high when you're pushing your body to the limits, and there is something different about the fact that you do all this training and you put it all out on the field of play and it either pays off or it doesn't. The fact that you've emptied the tank, there is something special about that. It is a self gratitude that you can hold your head high.

"To do it in the Super League format is quite cool. It is non-stop racing, fast and furious, and anything can happen."

´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer

Coverage of the London leg of the 2021 Super League Triathlon Championship Series will be available live on ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport website and app.

It will be repeated on ´óÏó´«Ã½ Red Button later in the day, and will be available on catch-up for 30 days afterwards too.

Full coverage details:

Sunday, 5 September

11:30-14:00 - ´óÏó´«Ã½ iPlayer and the ´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport website & app

16:15-18:45 - ´óÏó´«Ã½ Red Button (replay)

The ´óÏó´«Ã½'s coverage of Triathlon doesn't end there. The Hamburg legs of the World Triathlon series will be shown live on 18 & 19 September, before the Bermuda and Abu Dhabi's legs in October and November respectively.

´óÏó´«Ã½ Sport

Like running, swimming or cycling? Fancy doing all three, one after the other? If you answered yes to the previous two questions then triathlon is the sport for you!

The main triathlon season runs from May until September and there are loads of races to choose from - there are over 750 triathlon clubs in the UK with many of them offering taster sessions for people interested in taking up the sport. You can find a comprehensive list of races via

Triathlon England's scheme is a fun way to get a taste of the sport without breaking the bank. You'll also find training advice and tips about transitioning from one discipline to another on their website. Local pool-based races are a great introduction to the sport if you are a first timer.