Since London 2012, the areas driving growth included wetsuits (up 137%), sports nutrition (up 82%) and event entries, travel and accommodation (up 67%).

Wetsuit sales, benefitting from the growth in the popularity of open water swimming alongside triathlon, increased 13% last year, with 72% of those surveyed having bought a new wetsuit within the past three years.

The growing adoption of sports nutrition, up 15% year on year, as a training and race aid was evidenced by 75% of respondents now using nutrition products at least once per week.

The economic uncertainty introduced by June’s Brexit vote was unable to stop the industry growing by 4.4%* overall in 2016. Whilst the ‘big ticket’ purchasing of bikes did suffer, down by 7%, triathletes seemed to console themselves by travelling overseas to race, with 24% racing outside the UK last year.

Despite triathlon no longer being the new kid on the block, its grassroots still look in good shape with 37% of those questioned having started their first race in the last three years. Running is still the primary source for new starters, with 56% of new triathletes having previously been runners.

Mel Berry, TIA Chair said: “For a niche yet constantly evolving sport like ours, this annual study is hugely important; it provides us with a detailed understanding of our community, and the trends affecting them, which gives us the vital confidence to make informed decisions, both individually and collectively. I would like to extend a big thank you to all of the 5,529 survey respondents and to the trade representatives who helped fine-tune the report.”

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For more information about TIA: http://www.triathlonindustryassociation.org/

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“I’m really excited about this new adventure, but I have to admit to being slightly daunted too. The HeinekenRace to the Tower is a huge, huge challenge for me,” she says.

“An ultra is something I said I would never do and I’m quite worried that I may not even finish. I did run the London Marathon in April, which was a fantastic experience and I really enjoyed having a sporting goal again – even if I’m not as fast as I used to be. I’m still not sure what came over me, but I decided to Google ultra races soon after crossing the finish line. I blame post marathon delirium. 

“In terms of race strategy I don’t really know what to expect but I have asked a few, experienced ultra runners for their advice, and the consensus seems to be: take a slower pace, fuel relatively early on and walk the hills. And, most importantly, enjoy it!” 

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The  Heineken Race to the Tower is a double marathon that runs from Gloucestershire to Worcestershire. The route takes in some quintessentially English villages and landmarks, including Winchcombe, Painswick and Sudeley Castle, before finishing at Broadway Tower in Worcestershire.

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This year Ali Brownlee has been focusing on the longer 70.3 distances and Jonny has had a disappointing start to the season with bike crashes and injuries, but both will be hungry for a win in their home city.

Ali said: “I’m obviously really looking for to racing in Leeds, I couldn’t miss my home race. The atmosphere in the crowds in the city centre was magical last year, so hopefully there will be even more people turn out this year, and they’ll shout even louder.”

Jonny said: “I’ve had a bit of an unlucky start to the year, but if I want to do well in the Series I have to do well in Leeds. So hopefully it will start well on Sunday, and hopefully I can finally beat Alistair in a big race.”

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And it would be foolish to rule out Tom Bishop after his second place in the opening round in Abu Dhabi in March. Gordon Benson, Adam Bowden and Scots, Marc Austin and Grant Sheldon complete the British male line up.

Hoping to keep the British men off the podium in Leeds will be Olympic bronze medallist Henri Schoeman (RSA) and Fernando Alarza (ESP) who is presently lying second in the WTS rankings.

The men’s line up

 In the women’s Leeds-based Non Stanford, who finished fourth in Rio last summer, is arguably Britain’s biggest challenge to ITU world champion, Flora Duffy who finished second last year behind Gwen Jorgensen.

However, it was super-fast swimmers and cyclists, Jess Learmonth and Lucy Hall who made the best start with Duffy last year. They are back this year along with ETU Triathlon European Champion, India Lee and recent ITU World Cup winner, Georgia Taylor-Brown.

Women’s start list

 WTS LEEDS OURSE PROFILE:

The 1.5km swim will take place in the Roundhay Park Lake, located approximately 9km north of Leeds city centre.
The 40km bike leg will see athletes leave Roundhay Park and head into the city centre and complete a full loop that leads back into the Park before finishing in T2 in the city centre.
The 10km run course will take you on a city centre loop which will take you past iconic landmarks such as Town Hall, Millennium Square and The Headrow.

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Both races will be live on BBC2 on Sunday 11 June with the women starting at 13:00 and the men’s at 15:45. You can also follow the action @220Triathlon or watch it on triathlonlive.tv if you’re not in the UK

In August 2020, the Odaiba Marine Park in Tokyo will host the third triathlon event during the next Olympics, giving triathletes the possibility to earn another Olympic medal. The mixed relays will represent a catalyst on the promotion of women athletes within all NOCs around the world, as it completely fulfils the Agenda 2020 requirements.

Marisol Casado, President of ITU and IOC Member, said: “We are absolutely delighted with this decision. We’ve been pushing for the Mixed Relays to be included in the programme for quite a long time, as it is an event that gives the sport something very important: a sense of team building. But most important, is an event that demonstrates that women and men can compete together but both are equally important to the success of the team.”

IOC President, Mr Thomas Bach, said: “The fascinating new events that we approved today, together with the five new sports that were added to the Tokyo 2020 programme last year, represent a step-change in the Olympic programme. I am delighted that the Olympic Games in Tokyo 2020 will be more youthful, more urban and will include more women”.

The mixed relays is one of the most thrilling events in triathlon, with teams of two men and two women completing each a short-course triathlon (300m swim, 8km bike, 2km run) before tagging off to their teammate to take over. With its rapid and unpredictable format, athletes love it and spectators enjoy it both onsite and on television, making it one of the most spectacular formats of the circuit.

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With no extra athletes needed to be added to the Olympic Programme, and lots of extra excitement ensured, the mixed relays are also backed by triathlon fans and event organisers around the world.

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“It will be amazing if we could have two opportunities to get a medal at the Olympic Games,” said Olympic champ Gwen Jorgensen. 

Britain’s Jess Learmonth took the lead early in the 1.5km swim, which took place in the Roundhay Park Lake, with Non Stanford 18 secs behind at the end of the first swim lap. She would hold and extend this lead through the second lap, and exited the swim first, with Flora Duffy in fourth, and Non Stanford in 18th, about a minute down.

Always a strong cyclist Learmonth set out on the bike leg with a mission to prove, however this lead was short-lived as on hearing how far back Stanford was, she decided to hold back to help get Stanford back into contention.    

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Flora Duffy then made her move and before the first bike lap was over she was part of a leading group of four that included Alice Betto (Italy), Maya Kingma from The Netherlands and Taylor Spivey from USA.

This group meant business and increased their lead every lap, from 01:05 after the first lap to 02:30 by the time they headed into T2. This was an incredible lead over the chase group, which included Stanford and Learmonth, and the chances for a Brit making a podium finish were looking slim.

Heading into the run Flora Duffy had to be the favourite, and within minutes she dropped Betto, Spivey, and Kingma – the cycling leg having really taken its toll. Kingma would then be dropped and it looked like silver and bronze positions would be fought between Betto and Spivey, with Spivey proving to be the stronger runner. Betto would take third and be the first Italian to make a WTS podium. 

“It felt amazing,” says Spivey. “I worked really hard trying to keep up with Flora, but it was worth it!”

“It was a perfect race,” says Betto.

A phenomenal run from American athlete Kiirsten Kasper saw her overtake Kingma to get into fourth, and would end the race as the leader of the series.  A great performance on the run by Learmonth left her in 6th place, her best WTS finish.

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But the day would belong to Duffy and her campaign to retain her world championship title is very much on…

As expected Richard Varga (SVK) was first out of the swim with Jonny in second and Alistair not far behind. Both had a great transition and were out on the bike leg as part of lead group with two the Frenchmen Pierre Le Corre and Aurelien Raphael.

However the chase group, led by Alarza were chasing hard and halfway into the intro lap, when it looked like the leaders would get swallowed up, the Brownlees decided to break and go alone after it was clear the Frenchmen could not go with them.

 At the end of the intro lap they had a lead of just 6 secs, but by the end of the first city lap the lead had extended to 11secs, and a fantastic second lap saw them double this to 24secs. Over the next five laps they would increase this lead to 01:13 – would this prove enough of a cushion to see them repeat last year’s success and take first and second?

The answer was an undeniable yes. There was no way these brothers were going to let anyone back into the race for gold and silver, and a one-two finish was soon assured but how would it fall? In the end it was Alistair again who made his famous dominating move with about 2km to go, and from then on the race was his.

Behind the Brownless the race was on for third between Great Britain’s Adam Bowden and Tom Bishop, and Alarza. Both Brits were looking strong and for a brief time there was hope Britain could make it a clean sweep on the podium, but with 4km to go Alarza made a decisive move and broke away for bronze, leaving Bowden and Bishop to take a fantastic fourth and fifth respectively.

 A historic day for British triathlon with Great Britain taking four out of the top five places.

“It was really special,” Alistair told BBC Sport. “You can never expect to win a race and know what is going to happen.

“The last few hundred metres leading up to Millennium Square was amazing. I will remember this experience for the rest of my career.

“We were riding really hard on the bikes. For the first three laps of the circuit, we were probably riding as hard as we ever have. That took it out of us on the run.”

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Jonny said: “It was a hard way to do that race, to be the two of us from the end of the swim. If I want to beat Alistair, that is not the way to do it. I basically turned it into a long-distance hard man’s race and he is a bit harder than me.”

Brothers go 1-2! @AliBrownleetri and @jonny_brownlee earn gold and silver in front of their hometown crowd! #WTSLeeds pic.twitter.com/RUgApOjxDC

— TriathlonLIVE (@triathlonlive) June 11, 2017

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The latest high profile example is the ITU World Series race in Leeds last Sunday, an event that could well be the biggest showcase for triathlon in this country until Tokyo 2020. The women raced first and as Jess Learmonth led the swim the excitement mounted. Given her results this season (a win, two seconds, and eighth in the World Series race in Japan), the Leeds local is Team GB’s form triathlete.  

She emerged first from the water in Roundhay Park, powered clear up the hill on the bike… and then – after passing a British Triathlon official – all but stopped so abruptly that not even the commentators noticed. The reason she’d dropped behind the front pack was to offer assistance to team-mate Non Stanford. But it was folly.  

Stanford, the 2013 world champion and fourth in the Rio Olympics, was 58secs behind out from the swim, and despite Learmonth’s best efforts on the bike lost another 1:39mins to the leaders coming into T2. The race was done.  

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The irony here is two-fold. Firstly, we’d been here before. Last year in Leeds, Learmonth and fellow wonder-swimmer Lucy Hall were clear with Flora Duffy on the bike, but dithered, unsure over a team directive to help team GB’s faster runners in the chase group, and the fast-running American Gwen Jorgensen took full advantage.  

Secondly, Learmonth, ran not only better than Stanford this year, but a full minute faster than Italy’s third-place finisher, Alice Betto. She still achieved a career-high World Series finish of sixth, but had she just put her head down and gone for it, she’d likely have been on the podium.  

In mitigation, British Triathlon concede that Stanford has been unwell but gambled she’d pull through with the home crowd support. Conversely, Learmonth had not run for three weeks with a knee niggle, and is still a relative novice as despite being 29 years old, she only competed in her first triathlon five years ago.  

The reality is that the team delivery instructions, discussed with the performance staff and senior British triathletes, ultimately befuddled Learmonth’s thinking on the course, and when a BTF steward told her her time split she made the wrong call.

Team delivery has worked in the past for Team GB. It worked to help Gordon Benson win the European Games in 2015 and India Lee in last year’s European championship. But those races played out in front of tiny audiences. Leeds had four hours of BBC coverage and tens of thousands watching in Leeds city centre so the real shame is not just a missed opportunity for Learmonth but that the sport was robbed of a barnstorming showcase for our British women.  

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For that Sunday evening entertainment, it was, once again, over to the Brownlees.

This is the second running of the British version of the Swedish race series, which this year saw saw 200 participants in teams of two compete, with athletes attending from 17 different countries. This year’s course was slightly modified from last year and took out one shallow section of swimming early in the race (which had seen many competitors wading), replacing it with an additional swim leg from the beautiful island of Tresco.

This meant competitors raced a total of a little over 37km, with almost 30km of running around the Cornish coastal trails and 8km of swimming across bays and between islands, with water temperatures ranging from 12-14 degrees C. What was very different was the air temperatures this year though – the swimrunners faced searing heat and direct sun, with almost no breeze.

Records smashed

Many of the top athletes loved the conditions though, with the warm runs providing a strong contrast to the chill of the swims. There’s a lot of swimming in ÖtillÖ and the longest two swims in yesterday’s race were 2km at the start and 2.5km at the end of the race, meaning it was important to make smart kit choices.

The first team, Stefano Prestinoni and Fredrik Axegård (SWE), crossed the line in 04:42:08, smashing the course record from last year’s race in over 20 minutes. Other fast times were set too, with a mixed team, Diane Sadik (SUI) and Henrik Wahlberg (SWE), finishing second overall, only 13 minutes after the leaders with the time 4:55:55!

The winning women’s team, reigning world champion Annika Ericsson and Elisabet Pärsdotter Westman (SWE), finished 5:28:58 and 12th overall.

Stefano Prestinoni from the winning team Swimshop.se said after the finish line: “It was an amazing race. We struggled quite hard as the temperatures were changing so much from air to water. The air was hot and the water was cold. But the swimming was fantastic – the water was so calm it was like swimming in the pool!”

Today sees the Sprint race take place, where over 30 teams of two (including 220‘s Editor Helen Webster) will take on a course of almost 15km, with nine runs and eight swims. You can follow the race live from 11am today at www.otilloswimrun.com/live.

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There will be a full five-page report from the ÖtillÖ Swimrun Isles of Scilly weekend in issue 341 of 220 Triathlon, on sale 19th July.

Interested in trying swimrun for the first time? Read our guide here: What Is Swimrun?

Want to find out more about kit for swimrun? Read our Essential Guide to Swimrun Kit

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Here are some stunning photos from the event 

After three weeks and more than 2,000 miles in the saddle, these few seconds remain the smallest margin of victory in the race’s 100+ year history.

But, as dramatic as that Sunday afternoon on the streets of Paris was, the race wasn’t just about that one time-trial. During the previous fortnight, the leader’s yellow jersey had swapped back and forth between LeMond and Fignon in a titanic struggle for supremacy, a battle with more twists and turns than the maziest Alpine mountain pass. At no point during the entire three weeks were LeMond and Fignon separated by more than 53 seconds. 

In Three Weeks, Eight Seconds, 220 Triathlon contributor Nige Tassell brings one of cycling’s most astonishing stories to life, examining that extraordinary race in all its multi-faceted glory with fresh interviews and new perspectives and laying bare that towering heights of adrenaline, agony, excitement, torment and triumph that it produced. 

Three Weeks, Eight Seconds is out now from Polaris Publishing, priced £14.99.

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NIGE TASSELL writes about sport and music, and his work has appeared in the pages of 220 Triathlon, the Guardian, Sunday Times, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Q and The Word. He’s also the author of The Bottom Corner: A Season With The Dreamers Of Non-League Football.