The National MiWaylife Ultra Triathlon Series which started in 2009 has events at Sun City, Cape Town, Durban and now Joburg. This national footprint of the ULTRA Tri-Series gives the series a solid platform to exposure the sport of triathlon to the South African market and to give access to potential athletes and familes to these exciting events. The ULTRA Tri-Series offers two event distances at each race, the Sprint Triathlon being the shorter event, combining a 600m swim, 20km cycle and a 5km run. While the Ultra Triathlon is the same distance as the 70.3 races, combining a 1.9km swim, a 90km cycle and a 21.1km run.

The Series is currently the only National Sprint and Ultra Tri-Series available in South African and is the breeding ground for the up and coming triathlon stars in SA. Each event also gives competitors the opportunity to do the event in either a Team relay format, or individually, which opens the doors for Corporate Teams, Clubs and Families to participate in their favourite discipline.

Many Johannesburg and Pretoria based athletes know the Cradle of Humankind as their weekly training ground. “With 40% of our National Series entries coming from Gauteng, we wanted to bring the race to the athletes who support our events” Says Damian Bradley.

The planned route for the Ultra cycle will be 2 laps of 45km each, with a total elevation gain of only 780m over the 90km. The Sprint athletes will have an easier 10km out and back loop before they take on their run course. The new Cradle bike course is a lot less severe than the steep climbs of the KZN Midlands, which will ensure some fast bike times over the 90km course.

The swim will be an open water swimmer’s dream with the swimmers using the clear, clean waters of the Cradle Dam, which already plays host to a few Triathlon events and open water swimming races. The run discipline for the Sprint competitors will predominantly be on open gravel roads, while the Ultra run course will predominantly be on Tar roads in the Cradle.