Brighton triathlon - no swim!

Brighton’s big swim-bike-run became a run-bike-run this morning after organisers cancelled the sea swim overnight on safety grounds. TriBourne Multisport Events said a review with the swim safety team and the latest forecast left ‘no doubt the swim conditions will be too rough’ as waves were set to build through the night. The decision turned all adult triathlons into duathlons and scrapped the standalone 1,500 m swim.

Racing still began on time off Hove Lawns with revised formats. Standard distance athletes started with a 5 km run before the 40 km closed-road bike and the usual 10 km finish; sprint athletes opened with a 2.5 km run before a 20 km bike and 5 km run (see photos); TriStar and super-sprint waves rolled straight out of transition on the bike; the aquathlons became 10 km and 5 km runs; and the 1,500 m swim was cancelled with refunds or deferrals promised. Duathlon waves were folded into the main beach starts at 9:30 for sprint and 9:40 for standard.

The event’s modern history dates from 2016 when, supported by the council, the city hosted its first Brighton & Hove Triathlon on Sunday 11 September, centred on Hove Lawns with a sea swim, closed-road bike laps and a promenade run. By 2019 the weekend drew more than 1,600 competitors across children’s and adult races and even hosted British Age-Group qualifying, cementing its place on the calendar. This year was billed as the biggest edition yet, with the familiar fast, flat, traffic-free loop on the seafront.

Conditions in the Channel have been a recurring talking point locally, but today’s change was about surf height rather than water quality. Previous concerns have included bathing water standards, with citizen-science testing of Hove seawater year-round reflecting the scrutiny on coastal bathing waters (see Brighton and Hove News). Nationally too, governing bodies from British Triathlon to Swim England have pressed for cleaner rivers and seas after high-profile pollution incidents disrupted events elsewhere (see The Guardian).

Brighton’s triathlon now sits alongside the city’s other mass-participation fixtures that bookend the year: the Brighton Marathon Weekend each spring, the long-running Brighton Half Marathon, and the British Heart Foundation’s London to Brighton Bike Ride that empties thousands onto Madeira Drive each June. Those events, together with today’s reworked duathlon, underscore Brighton Beach’s role as a year-round arena for large, closed-road endurance sport.