Super League Triathlon heads to Malta

Cam Mitchell October 25, 2018

Start of the 2018 Super League Triathlon Championship race series in St. Helier, Jersey. Photo: @nathankillam

This weekend, October 26th to 28th, Super League Triathlon (SLT) makes its second stop of the Championship series in Valletta, Malta.

At SLT Jersey, the first race of the series, Vincent Luis of France and Katie Zaferes of USA took the win.

Like in Jersey a month ago, the second event the SLT Championship series will be streamed to thousands of triathlon fans on their website and CBC Sports. The racing begins on Friday with stage one of the Equalizer, a time trial swim. Saturday follows with the Eliminator race format. Then on Sunday, the event concludes with stage two of the Equalizer.

What is the Equalizer?

This format adopts a stage race format. In stage one, the athletes complete an individual time trial which will determine the athletes’ starting times for stage two. Stage two is an Enduro race format, featuring a 300m swim, 5K bike and 2K run, twice in a row, non-stop. The winner is the athlete with the best cumulative time.

What is the Eliminator?

As the name suggests, this race format introduces an aspect of elimination to triathlon racing. The Eliminator is broken up into three separate race with a 10-minute break in between. Only the top 15 finishers from race one move onto race two, and just the top 10 moves on from race two to three. The winner is the triathlete who crosses the line first in the third and final race.

Vincent Luis. Photo: @vincentluistri

Katie Zaferes. Photo: @kzaferes6

The Canadians

In the men’s race, Canada will be represented by Tyler Mislawchuk and Matthew Sharpe. Last week, Mislawchuk showed off his strong, late-season form with a win at the Italian Grand Prix race in Scario, Italy. Sharpe raced last weekend in Salinas, Ecuador, but DNF’d following a crash on the bike.

On the women’s side, Canada will be represented by Joanna Brown and Desirae Ridenour. Brown raced to a sixth-place finish two weeks ago at the World Cup in Sarasota, Florida. Ridenour also competed in Florida as a member of the mixed relay team that finished second. She raced to a 14th place finish in Ecuador last weekend.