PTO Asian Open site and date announced

The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) has announced the date and site for the inaugural PTO Asian Open – it will take place in Singapore on Aug. 19-20, 2023. The PTO has signed a three-year deal with the Singapore Tourism Board and Sport Singapore.

“When we were planning the first PTO Asian Open, the opportunity to stage the event in Singapore and seeing the world’s best triathletes race around the iconic Marina Bay was something that made sense on many levels,” said Sam Renouf, the CEO of the PTO. “It is important that the PTO Tour goes to different continents, different kinds of courses and different climates – that will enable us to see who really is the greatest endurance athlete on the planet. Singapore will be a great destination as well as a great race venue.”

The PTO Asian Open will feature a 100 km race including a 2-km swim, 80-km bike and an 18-km run – the same distances featured at the Canadian and US Open events held last year. As with those events, there will be age group races over the same distance (and presumably sprint events, too). Details on the amateur events will be available next month, according to a release from the PTO today.

Related: $5.5 Million PTO Tour kicks off with Canadian Open in Edmonton

The event will be one of five races that will make up the PTO Tour in 2023. Last year the Tour kicked off with the PTO Canadian Open in Edmonton, then saw the world’s top distance athletes compete at the Collins Cup. The 2022 season rounded out with the PTO US Open.

“The athletes are hugely appreciative of the work the PTO has been doing to show off triathlon to the world,” said Australia’s Ashleigh Gentle, who won both the PTO Canadian and US Open events. “There were some very successful events in 2022 that delivered on the PTO vision and also signposted some of the opportunities going forward. Today’s news on the 2023 calendar shows that things are moving in the right direction.”