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In one week's time, on May 2nd, 2009, the first leg of the new Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Series will take place in Tongyeong, Korea.

ITU's partner, the international sports agency SPORTFIVE, has been negotiating with TV stations worldwide over the broadcast of the eight stages of the series to be hosted in fascinating cities like Madrid, Washington DC, Kitzbühel, Hamburg, London and Yokohama, culminating with the Grand Final in Gold Coast, Australia. More than 20 broadcast partners will be at the start of the series and will air the events either live or in highlights.

"The response from the international broadcasters has been positive", declared Lars Heidenreich, Executive Vice President International TV of SPORTFIVE. "We expect that at the end of the season our pool of broadcasting partners will have grown to over 30. The top athletes competing head to head to crown their champion before the backdrop of these host cities - that's a great format for TV broadcast."

Renowned public broadcast partners like ARD/ZDF, BBC, RTP and ORF have teamed up in Europe to broadcast pictures from the series. In the Asia/Pacific region, a group of 10 individual TV partners including Japanese NHK will guarantee a wide coverage of the different triathlons.

"Live television coverage combined with highlights shows of all our events is a major step forward for the sport," said Paul Coleman, ITU Director of the series. "The list of broadcasters televising the events is already extremely encouraging and I'm positive as the series grows the level of coverage will only increase. We expect once broadcasters and audiences witness the drama and excitement of live racing, that the interest in the series will continue to expand."

For more information on the Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Series and its broadcast partners, please visit www.triathlon.org

The Dextro Energy Triathlon - ITU World Championship Series is a new global triathlon series at the highest level of the sport. It represents an innovative change by creating seven first-class World Championship events and a Grand Final rather than a one-day world championship event. The world's best triathletes will compete head-to-head, featuring live international television for the first time from every event. A record of over USD 3 million (total prize money available for world championship and world cup series) will be at stake in the battle to become triathlon's 2009 world champion.

(source: Sportfive)