In 2017 Challenge Penticton will happen in July and only be the 1/2 distance race. The ITU world multi sport championship will happen over 10 days at the traditional time in August that Challenge takes place.

2018 will go back to the regular challenge Penticton race the last week of august.

Hosting the world championship will put Penticton back on the map again in the eyes of the triathlon world. With 3-4 thousand athletes coming for the ITU world championship there will be significant economic impact, but the greatest residual impact will be athletes returning to our region to train and compete in future years.

Earlier news release:

The International Triathlon Union (ITU) has announced Penticton as the host city of the 2017 Multisport World Championships Festival.

The inaugural event will take place in the summer of 2017 and will encompass four of the ITU’s premiere events – Duathlon, Aquathon, Cross Triathlon and the Long Course Triathlon World Championships. This groundbreaking event now allows for athletes to compete in various multisport races, as opposed to electing only one each season.

Penticton, which was voted one of the ten best places in the world to visit in a survey by the Huffington Post, boasts an impressive triathlon history, as it was the first city outside of Kona to host a long course triathlon. The British Columbia city is also the birthplace of Triathlon Canada, as ITU’s founding President Les McDonald drafted the National Federation’s blueprint in 1984 with a group of triathlon enthusiasts.