Salford Triathlon

The city of Salford in north west England is now a well-established and firm favourite on the international triathlon circuit. It has hosted the UK's only triathlon world cup qualifying event in late July every year since 2003.

With the sport becoming increasingly popular, in 2000 Greater Manchester’s councils created a role for a Triathlon Development Officer who would encourage the sport at a grass roots level in schools and the community. The interest was incredible and it was from here that the Millennium Waterfronts Triathlon was born.

The MWT combined the north west regional championships and national championships for under 21s - with 500 people competing for the titles, including Richard Allen, Richard Stannard, and Jodie Swallow.

The success of that first event was proved when Salford won the right to hold the National Triathlon Championships in 2001 - attracting 1000 competitors from all over the world, including a host of big names for the elites’ races, like Simon Whitfield and Leanda Cave.

It was the first time the nationals had come up north - John Lunt, Race Director, said at the time:

"This has been the best course in the country for competitors. Having a closed city centre course is very rare and lets athletes go right into the heart of Manchester - creating a fantastic atmosphere between them and the spectators."

Those national championships also proved to be an important rehearsal for the Commonwealth Games Triathlon in 2002 - which ran over the now tried and tested course. Over 100,000 spectators lined the route to view one of the few free CWG events and the atmosphere they created was amazing as Simon Whitfield and Carol Montgomery raced to gold!