PTO succumbs to criticism and chops age group entry fees in half

The Professional Triathletes Organisation (PTO) recently announced that it would be adding age group racing to its PTO Tour events, which begin with the PTO Canadian Open in July. Age group registration recently opened with entries at over CDN$400 for some of the events, and the organization received lots of criticism for the amount it was charging for first year races.

Find out more about the PTO Canadian Open here.

Turns out it wasn’t just age group athletes who were upset over the pricing – the PTO’s professional members appear to have been critical, too. Today the PTO announced that it has reduced the price for the events by 50 per cent.

“Having spoken with our PTO Professionals, we quickly realised that although we believe PTO Tour events will soon become bucket list races on every fan’s calendar, this is not a status that we can automatically assume. Like an ambitious young athlete, we must first earn our stripes through proven results before we can be compared to the greats,” said Sam Renouf, PTO’s CEO. “We apologise for not recognising this at the outset and hope that the triathlon community can forgive the error. We are grateful for the structure of the PTO, which provides the chance for the immediate feedback of the PTO Professionals when we’ve misstepped. Following a unanimous vote from the PTO Athlete Board, we have subsequently reduced all age group pricing by 50% and will automatically issue a refund to all existing entrants to reflect this.”

The PTO Tour will include three events this year, the PTO Canadian Open in Edmonton on July 23 and 24, the Collins Cup in Bratislava, Slovakia on Aug. 20 and 21 and the PTO US Open in Dallas, Texas on Sept. 17 and 18. Each event will feature pro races over the 100 km distance (2 km swim, 80 km bike and 18 km run), with age group races over the 100 km and 25 km distances.

You can get more information about the events here.