Triathlon is a sport born from awesome challenges
From your first open-water swim or run off the bike, to putting it all together in a Swim / Bike / Run at any distance, there’s always a challenge to do something new. Whether your next step involves going bigger, longer or faster, taking on that challenge offers the chance to find something new inside yourself and maybe achieve a new level.
Each year, Triathlon Manitoba’s Grand Prix and Sprint series represent the greatest challenges of our season. While our Provincial Championship rewards the best racer for each of three distances on one given day, these Series awards celebrate consistency and strength across a season of racing. Here’s how each series works…
Participants in each respective series can score points at the following events:
| EVENT NAME | SPRINT SERIES | GRAND PRIX SERIES |
| Birds Hill | Sprint Triathlon | Olympic Triathlon |
| St Malo | Sprint Triathlon | Olympic Triathlon |
| Hecla | Sprint Triathlon | Olympic OR Long Course |
| Peace Garden | Sprint Triathlon | Olympic Triathlon |
| Riding Mtn | Sprint Triathlon | Olympic Triathlon |
While the races themselves are open to anyone, you must have a Triathlon Manitoba Annual Membership to be included in either series, and you must complete at least three events in the same series (so 3 Sprint distance or 3 Olympic/LC distance events) to be considered.
Whether you’re racing for your age group award or the overall prize, the points are awarded as follows:
| Finish Position | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th | Beyond |
| Points Scored | 50 | 41 | 33 | 26 | 20 | 15 | 11 | 8 | 6 | 5 | 1 |
So if Athlete A competes the Sprint races at Birds Hill, St Malo and Peace Garden, with age group finish placings of 3rd, 5th and 2nd respectively, they’ve earned 94 points (33 + 20 + 41) towards the Age Group Title in the Sprint Series. If they add Riding Mountain to their schedule after that and place 2nd again there, because only the top three placings score, the 20 points from 5th place at St Malo is now removed from their best three results, and their Sprint series score is now (33 + 41 + 41) = 115!
Similarly, if Athlete B races Olympic distance events at St Malo & Riding Mountain, netting 5th & 3rd overall, and also wins the Long Course events at Hecla, they’ll have scored 103 points towards the Grand Prix Series Overall category.
But if Athlete C completes the Sprint races at Birds Hill and Hecla, then does the Olympic at Riding Mountain, they won’t have completed the minimum of three races in either series needed to qualify for series awards.
We’re sorry that there’s math involved in this too (triathlon’s secret fourth challenge), but these formulas offer a fair and consistent way to measure, compare and reward performances across the season. How consistent— the Grand Prix series has been around for ~40 years, so it carries a strong legacy in Triathlon Manitoba (and you can too!)
If you’re keen to see who’s won these series in the past, you can find the award winners from each season listed on our Results & Awards page.
If you have any other questions about these series or the TriMB calendar in general, please let us know.
