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The former pro cyclist will be discussing the future of endurance sports and his initial love of triathlon with Quintana Roo founder Dan Empfield, and there’ll also be a Q&A session where attendees can ask Armstrong – who had his seven Tour de France titles stripped in 2012 – questions.

“It’s an exciting time to be in the triathlon and broader endurance space, dreaming up new ways to give athletes the experiences and information that celebrates the multisport lifestyle,” says Armstrong. “I’ve been passionate about the endurance world since I was a kid growing up in Texas.”

Before Armstrong became a professional cyclist in 1992 he competed in triathlons, securing the U.S. national sprint-course championship in 1989 and 1990.

Armstrong returned to triathlon in 2011 at Xterra Utah and then scored Ironman 70.3 success in early 2012 before he was barred from racing Ironman France days before the event in June that year amid the escalating allegations about his systematic doping.

But does the appearance indicate a return to triathlon now a ban has ended that allows him to enter age-group races? We’ve contacted him to ask so watch this space…

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The theme of this year’s conference is Profitability & Success in Triathlon – Sharing Solutions to Shape the Future of Multisport, and those attending will hear from key industry leaders including USA Triathlon CEO Rob Urbach and  ACTIVE Network’s Sam Renouf.  

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The Triathlon Business International conference, presented by Active Network®, runs from January 22 – 24 2017 at the Fairmont Hotel in Dallas, USA

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In its second year the race will take place in Chia, a  tourist destination in South Sardinia, Italy. Frodeno will be racing the 70.3 distance and his presence means all the other athletes will get to compete alongside the most iconic triathlete in the world.

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As the event’s ambassador, Frodeno will promote the race globally through social media; sharing training tips and  live coverage of his race.

 “I have had excellent reviews of the race. With a great organisation and spectacular landscapes, Chia seems to be a perfect place to enjoy sports to the fullest, and the Chia Laguna, within a walking distance from the course, a perfect resort to stay”, says Frodeno.

“I am very excited to race in Chia, hopefully it will be a brilliant start of my European season and a good test for the longer race in summer”.

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We have named Jan Frodeno 11th  in our top 15 Kona greats of all time

“I want to win the half-Ironman world champs at some point and that’s the obvious next step to try next year,” the 28-year-old from Yorkshire said.

“I’m trying not to think too far ahead. I’ve had two Olympic cycles where I’ve said I want to be on the start-line to win the race in four years’ time, and this time I’m approaching it a bit differently.”

Brownlee won the Abu Dhabi International Triathlon short course races in 2013 and 2014 where the bike leg was extended to 100km, but he has yet to compete in an event with a run longer than 10km.

As with most triathletes breaking from the ITU draft-legal circuit, he also sees Ironman 70.3 as a natural stepping-stone to Ironman, and the World Championship in Hawaii.

“I want to do some other things for the next two years. Move away a bit from Olympic distance racing, try some longer stuff, maybe try some running,” he said.

“I know that to be there in Tokyo I have to commit from two years out. So this time in two years, my focus will be definitely Tokyo… or definitely Hawaii.”

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As he suggests, the ambitions are not restricted to multisport, and he relishes the chance to take on the world’s best over 10km and the marathon.

Having run a personal best of 28:32 in California in 2014, Brownlee aborted an attempt to make the England team for the 10km in the Commonwealth Games of Glasgow, due to injury. He would welcome another chance on Gold Coast for 2018.

“I’d love to have another crack at qualifying,” he added. “But as I found last time, it is a hard thing to get right. Even the best guys don’t race many 10km. I’d like to but not to sacrifice other things.”

He’d also not rule out stepping up to the marathon, once his OIympic triathlon days are behind him.  

“The marathon fits in a lot more with Ironman training than it does with Olympic distance training, so I’ll decide over the next 18 months. Unfortunately, you cannot do everything you want to in a professional sports career.”

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The Ironman 70.3 World Championships return to America in 2017, and will be held in Chattanooga on 10 September. To gain a race place, Brownlee would have to accrue points at an Ironman 70.3 Worlds qualifier during the season.

The triathlon legs are spread over 3 days, instead of just the one, with the open water swim taking place Friday evening at Jervis Bay. There will be the choice of a 3.8km, a 1.9km, 1.5km and 500m distance  to swim –  all to correspond with triathlons’ most popular distances.

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On Saturday the attention turns to The Grand Fondo, a 180km ride of undulating countryside that also incorporates 90km, 40km and 20km distances.

To finish the weekend, the athletes will complete The Run – a 42.2km marathon taking in the beautiful coastline of Jervis Bay and Huskinson. There is also a 21.1km run, 10km run and a 5km run.

More than 1500 competitors are expected to attend the inaugural Jervis Bay LCW with approximately 200 athletes attempting to receive the Long Course Weekend medal, which entails completing all three of the longest distances. 

LCW began in Tenby, Wales six years ago and has grown in numbers every year. Matthew Evans, Scott Powell and their team at Activity Wales Events are now taking this 3-day event around the world with new events to be announced in early 2017.

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“Our team is excited about LCW Jervis Bay,” says Matthew Evans, Founder of LCW. “We are so excited to be launching our first LCW outside the UK in Jervis Bay for a number of reasons.  Long Course Weekend is not just a race, it’s an experience.  To get this right you need to have a great team delivering the event and it has to be in the right location. It’s not about big conference centres and cities, but intimate relationships with the community and stunning landscapes.  This is why it is dubbed ‘the little big race’.”  

This funding allows British Triathlon to have 25 triathletes and 16 paratriathletes within the World Class Programme. This is broken down to 21 triathletes and 4 training partners and 13 paratriathletes with three guides, who British Triathlon will announced soon.

British Triathlon performance manager Brendan Purcell said: “We received the best outcome that we could have hoped for from our funding bid, which is a significant vote of confidence in our world class programme. Thanks to UK Sport and the National Lottery for their continued support of triathlon and paratriathlon.”

In preparation for the 2020 Games, UK Sport began working with sports over a year ago on their individual strategies for success to ensure that the momentum continues from Rio to Tokyo.

The ongoing commitment from Government to supporting the nation’s ambitions for success on the Olympic and Paralympic stage has seen sustained levels of overall investment for the Tokyo cycle, at a challenging time for National Lottery good causes revenue.

Rod Carr, Chair of UK Sport, said: “These are critical funding decisions for sports to take them on their journey to Tokyo 2020 and beyond so the historic success at Rio can be maintained.

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“We have received incredible support from the Government, who have confirmed their commitment to funding our ambitions through to Tokyo 2020, providing the financial assurances needed for the continued evolution of our high performance system to ensure the athletes and sports with strong medal potential have what they need to inspire the nation.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Government and National Lottery players for their continued support.”

Sports Minister Tracy Crouch said: “Rio 2016 was incredible – our Olympic and Paralympic heroes’ amazing performances made the country proud. The four year journey to Tokyo 2020 starts now and the Government and National Lottery is backing UK Sport to help maintain our place as a sporting superpower.

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“UK Sport’s approach to elite sport has proven successful in Beijing, London and Rio and the ambition to win more medals in Tokyo is a bold one that, if achieved, would mean a sensational summer of sport in 2020.”

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They measured inflammation markers in extracted synovial fluid from the knee joint of several healthy men and women, aged 18-35, both before and after running. The results showed these markers, two cytokines named GM-CSF and IL-15, decreased in concentration in the subjects after 30 minutes of running. When the same fluids were extracted before and after a non-running condition, the inflammation markers stayed at similar levels.

“It flies in the face of intuition,” said study co author Matt Seeley, associate professor of exercise science at BYU. “This idea that long-distance running is bad for your knees might be a myth.”

“What we now know is that for young, healthy individuals, exercise creates an anti-inflammatory environment that may be beneficial in terms of long-term joint health,” said study lead author Robert Hyldahl, BYU assistant professor of exercise science.

Hyldahl said the study results indicate running is chondroprotective, which means exercise may help delay the onset of joint degenerative diseases such as osteoarthritis.

This is potentially great news, since osteoarthritis – the painful disease where cartilage at the end of bones wears down and gradually worsens over time — affects about 27 million people in the United States.

“This study does not indicate that distance runners are any more likely to get osteoarthritis than any other person,” Seeley said. “Instead, this study suggests exercise can be a type of medicine.”

The study was published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology

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“The UK has seen a perpetual growth in athlete participation and there is clear demand for more races,” said Kevin Stewart, Regional Director of Northern Europe for Ironman. “We are excited to be expanding to Scotland for the first time and to now be able to offer events in Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales, giving thousands of athletes the opportunity to cross an Ironman finish line in the UK and Ireland.”

Approximately 2,000 athletes are anticipated to head to Edinburgh, the country’s capital, and the surrounding East Lothian and Midlothian countryside for this inaugural race.

The Ironman 70.3 Edinburgh will start at the historic Gosford House and feature a 1.2-mile (1.9km) sea swim from Gosford Sands on the Firth of Forth. Upon exiting the swim, athletes will then embark on a 56-mile (90.1km), one-loop bike ride on closed roads through the rolling countryside of East Lothian, Midlothian, and through the outskirts of the city centre of Edinburgh and Dalkeith country park. The athletes will then arrive in the transition area at the spectacular setting of Arthur’s Seat, a dormant volcano, in Holyrood Park. The athletes will head off on a beautiful multi lap 13.1-mile (21.2km) run within Holyrood Park before crossing the finish line.

“As Ironman continues to grow in stature, attracting the attention of serious athletes and media worldwide, we are delighted to be supporting their first visit north of the border through EventScotland’s International Programme,” said Paul Bush OBE, VisitScotland’s Director of Events. “We expect the Edinburgh stage to be one of the best supported on the IRONMAN 70.3 calendar, and we look forward to welcoming thousands of competitors and spectators in summer next year.”

The UK’s fastest Kona finisher and Scotsman David McNamee also confirmed to 220 that IM 70.3 Edinburgh is firmly in his own racing plans for 2017, and is looking forward to an M-Dot event on home soil: “It’s really exciting news and will help showcase long course racing in Scotland. I did my first ever triathlon in Edinburgh so it’s great to have the opportunity now to go back to where it all began.”

Fellow Scottish long course pro Fraser Cartmell also said: “Having lived and trained in Scotland throughout my career and having to always travel afar to compete in Ironman events, I was absolutely delighted to hear that Ironman 70.3 is coming to Edinburgh, a city that I am extremely fond of, where I studied at University and have spent so much time through life. I know all fellow Scottish triathletes will be equally thrilled at the prospect of a home Ironman 70.3 event. I cannot wait to stand on the start line!”

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General registration for IM 70.3 Edinburgh will open at 1pm GMT on Monday 19th December. A $25,000 USD professional prize purse will also be up for grabs, plus 35 age-group qualifying slots for the 2017 Ironman 70.3 World Championship taking place in Chattanooga, Tennessee on the 9th and 10th September 2017.

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The runners, overall, showed greater functional connectivity – or connections between distinct brain regions – within several areas of the brain, including the frontal cortex, which is important for cognitive functions such as planning, decision-making and the ability to switch attention between tasks.

The study was designed by UA running expert David Raichlen, an associate professor of anthropology, and UA psychology professor Gene Alexander, who studies brain aging and Alzheimer’s disease as a member of the UA’s Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute.

“One of the things that drove this collaboration was that there has been a recent proliferation of studies, over the last 15 years, that have shown that physical activity and exercise can have a beneficial impact on the brain, but most of that work has been in older adults,” said co author David Raichlen associate professor of anthropology

“This question of what’s occurring in the brain at younger ages hasn’t really been explored in much depth, and it’s important. Not only are we interested in what’s going on in the brains of young adults, but we know that there are things that you do across your lifespan that can impact what happens as you age, so it’s important to understand what’s happening in the brain at these younger ages.”

“These activities that people consider repetitive actually involve many complex cognitive functions — like planning and decision-making — that may have effects on the brain.” 

Since functional connectivity often appears to be altered in aging adults, and particularly in those with Alzheimer’s or other neurodegenerative diseases, it’s an important measure to consider, Alexander said. And what researchers learn from the brains of young adults could have implications for the possible prevention of age-related cognitive decline later on.

“One of the key questions that these results raise is whether what we’re seeing in young adults — in terms of the connectivity differences — imparts some benefit later in life,” said Alexander. “The areas of the brain where we saw more connectivity in runners are also the areas that are impacted as we age, so it really raises the question of whether being active as a young adult could be potentially beneficial and perhaps afford some resilience against the effects of aging and disease.”

These findings were published in the journal Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.

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The event will mark the third time Canada has hosted the World Championships with Edmonton having organised the race in 2001 and as recently as 2014.

Welcome to the ITU Edmonton Grand Finals!

Edmonton has also been the site of nine ITU World Cup events, and has hosted a stop on the World Triathlon Series every year since organising the Grand Final two years ago.

“Edmonton has been a staple city on the ITU calendar for many years,” ITU President and IOC Member Marisol Casado said. “The city provides unprecedented support to the event, while the local organising committee offers an exceptional experience for both elite and age grouper athletes. It will be a fantastic place to end the 2020 season after the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games.”

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Last year, Edmonton hosted a World Paratriathlon Event, which they will do again in 2017 as host of a stop on the World Paratriathlon Series.

WORLDS HISTORY

The ITU Triathlon World Championships were first held in Avignon, France in 1989 and were won by triathlon legends Mark Allen and Erin Baker.

In 2009, the championships were revamped, expanding the former single-day World Championship race into a multi-city global series, culminating with the ITU Triathlon World Championship Grand Final. Athletes earn points throughout the season and those who win the overall series are crowned the ITU Triathlon World Champions.

The 2017 ITU World Championships will be held at the Grand Final in Rotterdam, followed by Gold Coast in 2018 and Lausanne in 2019.

Official dates for the 2020 World Championships will be confirmed and announced imminently, say the ITU.

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We have asked the ITU for news about the age-group races and are awaiting their feedback