Building on the excitement the inaugural Western Canadian University Series saw in 2019, where post-secondary students from BC, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba battled for Series points supremacy over three events, spanning BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan, Triathlon BC is bringing home the race action and launching a BC-based Provincial University Series!
Already a designated NCAA Emerging Sport for Women in the United States, where 30 US-based post-secondary institutions offer NCAA Division I, II and III varsity women’s triathlon programs, the Western Canadian Series and Triathlon BC’s University Series aim to recreate the excitement domestically, offering male and female student athletes the opportunity to participate in competitive draft-legal racing.
Canadian athletes have an illustrious history competing in the NCAA, where both Hannah Henry (Victoria, BC) and Kyla Roy (Winnipeg, MB), both representing Arizona State University, won National triathlon titles in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
Piggybacking on the established BC SuperSeries, where aspiring high performance athletes hone their speed, technical skills and tactical savvy in a draft-legal environment, the BC University Series adds another layer to the growing performance event network, with the aim of bringing universities and colleges from across BC together to compete against each other in a battle to prove their speed! The initial objective for the provincially based series in 2020 is to grow the number of schools and universities participating in the Series, increase the awareness of the University Series, and support the performance-minded culture while still having fun competing against athletes of similar ages, abilities and mindsets!
“The new for 2020 University Series is an opportunity for student-athletes to showcase their talent in a performance environment,” said Allan Prazsky, Triathlon BC Executive Director and member of the Western Canadian University Series Committee, “the Western Series has proven that post-secondary athletes have an appetite for performance, the Provincial Series offers a fantastic opportunity for student athletes to compete against their peers, and will encourage many more young athletes to explore the performance pathway.”
With year on year tweaks to the SuperSeries points format to ensure consistent and fair competition, post-secondary athletes will race in U23 fields at 5 events across BC in 2020, using the same Series points structure. In order to be tracked in the provincial University Series, student-athletes must be members of a provincial governing body (i.e. Triathlon BC), be enrolled in a post-secondary institution, either part-time or full, and include their representing school upon Series registration.
Five events make up the 2020 University SuperSeries:
- North Shore Triathlon, May 18
- Victoria Youth Triathlon, June 7
- Kelowna Apple Triathlon, July 4 & 5
- Kamloops Youth Triathlon, August 9
- BC Championships Paradigm Naturopathic Kids Triathlon, September 13*
To learn more about the BC SuperSeries, please click HERE.
Allan Prazsky,
Executive Director
Triathlon BC
t. (604) 736-3176
Facebook & Twitter – Triathlon BC