Illawarra triathlete numbers spike before Wollongong welcomes the world

It was revealed this week that the World Triathlon Championship finals will be held in the Illawarra in 2025 as part of a three-pronged coup.

Wollongong will also host the 2024 World Triathlon Cup in April and another World Triathlon event in 2026 - as well as AusTriathlon's marquee Australian Standard Distance Championships for Age Group, Junior Sprint and Para and Intellectual Impairment Championships.

The news continues a run of positivity for the swimming-cycling-running format format in the Illawarra, which has enjoyed a post-COVID rise in participation numbers.

Illawarra Triathlon Club president James Alexander believes some of that success comes down to the fact that people of all ages - particularly families - can take part in the sport.

"Pre-COVID, around 2015 to 2018, we were booming and we had a really strong elite presence here with our triathletes," Alexander told the Mercury.

"The demographic then changed a bit before COVID hit, which really decimated mass participation events, which is essentially what triathlon is. And our club in particular felt that - we saw a huge drop off in our numbers. But we were really happy with the club itself, we kept events going through 2020, 2021 and into 2022, which was strongly supported by our local community.

"Growth is finally starting to come back after the dip that we had through the COVID years. And one of the really good things that we've seen that's driven that is putting on free kids triathlon events at our club events. And that's open to anyone in the community, if they're aged under 12, then can come along.

"We started doing that at the start of 2022 and I think we had maybe eight kids for that first one. But the last one we did, we had over 30 kids turn up, who had never done the sport before but we're all having fun out there.

"It's really been good to see."

The chance to host next year's World Triathlon Championship Finals in particular is a dream come true for Wollongong's triathlon community.

Alexander said that the UCI Road World Cycling Championships being run in the Illawarra 2022 proved that the region was "good at hosting these sort of events".

"There was a bit of backlash in the lead-up to that event, but the community really came out in force and supported it," he said.

"Once the event ran finished, there was this sense around town of 'it's over, when's that coming back'? Everyone seemed to actually enjoy it. I talked to other people who had this feeling of 'why can't we have that every year'?

"So to have this announcement, it's on that scale again. And for our triathlon community, it's massive news."

The Illawarra Triathlon Club's next race day will be held at Five Islands Secondary College, Port Kembla on Sunday, January 21.

The club will run a free open community kids triathlon event for under-12s as part of their monthly club races.