WIth the ITU Multisport Championships Festival now over, attention turns to what will be offered in the sport of triathlon next year in Penticton, a city which has a 35 year continuous history in the sport.

(STEVE ARSTAD / iNFOnews.ca)

PENTICTON - More than two years of planning and preparation has come to an end with the final day of the 2017 Penticton ITU World Championship Festival yesterday in the Peach City.

Even as the city and the multisport organization pride themselves on what most people feel was a successful event, thoughts move on to what the future holds for triathlon in Penticton, which has a 35 year history of the sport behind it.

Mayor Andrew Jakubeit says as far as the multisport festival goes, the cyclical event is headed to Denmark next year and Spain the next.

“Michael Brown has two years left in his Challenge contract to the city,” the mayor said today, Aug. 28.

“We haven’t really circled back on what next year is going to be - this year was focussed on multisport," he said.

"Probably in September we’ll have a conversation and he’ll roll out what the plan is for the triathlon event next year, what the brand is and what changes, modifications or improvements are going to be a part of it,” he said.

City Chief Administrative Officer Peter Weeber says the city still has Challenge and the Peach City Classic on the books for next year.

“ITU Championships are cyclical, I know they like successful events and based on what I’ve heard this has been a very successful event. I think they will be back. The cycle might be five years,” Weeber speculated, noting staff would not be bringing any recommendations before council, however, until the city develops systems to deal with the issues discovered during this year’s festival.

“There’s definitely a pattern related to these events, whether they take up a city park or they are spread out with road closures,” he said.

“There were a lot of happy people who were inspired by what they saw during the festival, but there were also a lot of frustrated residents. I tend to gravitate towards them, while celebrating what success we’ve had. I tend to go back that area, because I want to make sure when we’re hosting an event we aren’t disrupting the community. I want to minimize that as much as possible,” he said.

Multisport spokesperson Holly Bird says the process for applying for the festival is “a bit of a process.”

She said everyone involved with Penticton’s event was very impressed with it, but there are no plans for a future event in the city at this time.

To contact a reporter for this story, email Steve Arstad or call 250-488-3065 or email the editor. You can also submit photos, videos or news tips to the newsroom and be entered to win a monthly prize draw.

We welcome your comments and opinions on our stories but play nice. We won't censor or delete comments unless they contain off-topic statements or links, unnecessary vulgarity, false facts, spam or obviously fake profiles. If you have any concerns about what you see in comments, email the editor in the link above. 

News from © iNFOnews, 2017