Inaugural Collins Cup 2018 to be hosted at Challenge Roth

The Professional Triathletes Organisation, Challenge Family and Challenge Roth have today announced that the inaugural Collins Cup will be hosted at Challenge Roth on 1 July 2018 and will be the highlight of the weekend celebrations at the legendary race.

In order to accommodate a live global media broadcast, the first Collins Cup match is expected to start at noon, while age-groupers and professionals (not on a Collins Cup team) racing the traditional Roth course will begin at 6:30am.

The Collins Cup: a new Ryder Cup-style team competition for long distance tri

Tim O’Donnell and Rachel Joyce, Co-Presidents of the PTO, commented: “We could not be more thrilled that the first Collins Cup will be hosted at Roth. The primary mission of the PTO is to celebrate the sport of triathlon. The Collins Cup will bring together legends in this sport to captain today’s top triathletes in a battle to see which region dominates triathlon.

“Not only is this going to create a riveting competition, it will also serve as a platform for professionals and fans to celebrate triathlon. We can think of no better place to start that celebration than in Roth, where the fan support is truly amazing.”

Challenge Roth CEO, Felix Walchshoefer, stated: “Europeans love triathlon and especially the 260,000 dedicated German fans at Roth. As Germany has been unsuccessful in its last two bids to host the Ryder Cup, we were not going to miss the opportunity to bring The Collins Cup to Germany. The whole Challenge Family team pulled out all the stops to make sure that The Collins Cup would be contested at Roth, and we are pleased to have been selected as host venue for the inaugural event. It is only fitting that our dedicated fans and supporters have the opportunity to witness what will be an iconic event for the sport for triathlon.”

The Collins Cup is a first of its kind global competition in which teams of triathletes from the USA, Europe and the rest of the World (the ‘Internationals’) will compete to determine which region dominates the sport of triathlon.

Modelled on golf’s Ryder Cup, The Collins Cup is a long-distance team competition among USA, Europe and the Internationals. Each team will consist of 12 professional triathletes, six men and six women. An athlete from each team will battle against one another in an individual race of three, so there will be 12 separate race matches, each staggered 10 minutes apart. Athletes will be awarded points for their team based on performances in their respective race match and the team with the most overall points from the 12 race matches will claim the spoils of The Collins Cup and bragging rights as the most dominant force in the sport. The team that finishes last will receive The Broken Spoke Trophy.

Eight athletes will earn a place on their respective teams by way of the PTO World Ranking System and the remaining four athletes will be selected by each team’s captains. The team captains for The Collins Cup 2018 are: Dave Scott & Karen Smyers (USA); Normann Stadler & Chrissie Wellington (Europe); and Craig Alexander, Simon Whitfield, Erin Baker & Lisa Bentley (International).

Liz Barrett 220 Deputy Editor

About

220 deputy editor Liz Barrett started work on the magazine in 2007 as staff writer. Since then, she’s reported live from almost every major triathlon across the globe, including the Ironman World Championships, 70.3 Worlds, six ITU Worlds, Challenge Roth, the 2014 and 2022 Commonwealths, the London and Paris Olympics and the Rio Paralympics, to name but a few. Name a pro and chances are she’ll have interviewed them, so, unsurprisingly, she’s our go-to pro-athlete expert on the team. When not covering races, you’ll find her whipping words into finely-crafted shape for both the magazine and website.