SALFORD WORLD CUP HOSTS STELLAR FIELD OF WORLD CUP ATHLETES AND MANY BOUND FOR OLYMPIC GLORY: New event details have been posted for the Salford ITU World Cup coming up this weekend. Please check out the new venue for the Athletes Briefing, Press Conference and Media Centre, all at the Digital World Centre (photo-left) which is across the square from the Lowry Centre. The start list features 18 women and men who are using the event as a tune-up for the Olympic Games Triathlon later in August, as well as many athletes chasing the World Cup Ranking.

John Lunt, Event Director and Wendy Walker, Chair of the Organising Committee seem to have everything in order for a wonderful event. The ITUtv.com team will be on hand to bring you live coverage from Salford, featuring Jackie Fairweather (nee Gallagher) as the main live voice coverage with photos, live results and text by the rest of the ITU Media team.

Please click here for complete event details from Salford including the full pre-event media release..

BALKINS TRIATHLON CHAMPIONSHIPS DRAWS BIGGEST FIELD EVER! Irena Chuckanova (photo-left), member of the Sofia Balkins Triathlon Championships Production Team and ETU Executive Board member writes: Race conditions were very good with sunny weather, no wind,and temperature 28 - 30 C; The water temperature was 15 C so wetsuits were mandatory. Despite the cold water there was not a single triathlete who did not start.

The juniors started at 2:00 p.m. In the junior men's event Nayden Tsankov (BUL), winner of the Erdek race in June led the field up to the last 300m when he was passed by Vasilios Kanoutas (GRE). 3rd after a fall in the last lap on the cycling course was Stoyan Zaykov (BUL).

Junior Men:
1 Vasilios Kanoutas GRE
2 Nayden Tsankov BUL
3 Stoyan Zaykov BUL

TUNE INTO ITUtv.COM FOR LIVE COVERAGE FROM SALFORD: Live coverage from the Salford ITU World Cup will be the highlight for this weekend's multisport world. The live audio on the event will be by Jackie Fairweather (nee Gallagher) of Australia, a World Champion in both Triathlon and Duathlon. Jackie made her debut on the world of live audio at the 2004 Madeira ITU World Championships, and was also featured at the Edmonton ITU World Cup. As well as Jackie's insightful and enthusiastic audio, live coverage from Salford will also include live photos, results and text updates, with the magic photos of spomedis, ITU official photographer being loaded as quickly as possible.

Live coverage from Salford will begin at 10:00 a.m. local time or 9:0 a.m. UTC / GMT. Tune in to www.triathlon.org for all the action.

TIM YOUNT LEAVES USAT: The entire Triathlon family bids adieu to Tim Yount, acting Executive Director of USAT, as he moves on to a new career with a national sports organisation in Colorado Springs. Tim started at USAT in 1989, the same year that ITU was created in Avignon, France and in 1992 was appointed the Deputy Director, a post that he held until late 2003 when he was appointed the Acting Executive Director.

Everyone who has attended ITU World Championships of Triathlon, Duathlon or Long Distance has come to know Tim and value the contribution that he has made to the sport. The late Michel Gignoux gave Tim the nickname, "Mr. Question" because he covered every detail at athletes briefings and helped to bring clarity to issues which did not appear clear.

Although we hope that our paths will cross many times in the future, we're very sad because we will not see Tim as often as we did in the past. Good luck Tim, and remember that we'll always save you a seat at the front of Athletes' Briefing.

OUTSIDE ASSISTANCE AND COACHES ON THE FIELD OF PLAY: Coaches are reminded that it is forbidden to enter the field of play to provide athletes with splits or other information.

It is perfectly to provide this information from outside the field of play, but once you enter the field of play you are putting your athlete in a position where officials could penalise them with a stop and go or disqualification.

Let's all work together to ensure that ITU events are safe and fair for all athletes and not just those that we coach.

ETU NEWS UPDATE (Official information from the European Triathlon Union): Gergely Markus, ETU Secretary General writes:

ETU Long Distance Triathlon European Championships 2004, Immenstadt - Germany: Lizbeth Kristensen wons the ETU Long Distance Championships in Immenstadt only two weeks after her second place on the ITU World Championships in Säter, Sweden. On a warm clear blue sky day the mass start swim set off. In the women’s race Beth Thomson, GBR came out of the water first, 2nd place in the swim went to Novakova, CZE with Kristensen 1 min 50 down. Thomson held onto her lead on the hilly bike course until the start of the third lap when Kristensen took over. In the 2nd transition Kristensen was first, 2nd place was Heike Funk and third Wellekens from Belgium. Kirstensen held onto her lead on the four lap run to come home victorious as European Champion. 2nd place was Stefania Bonnazzi who made great progress on the run. Third place went to the Belgium Francoise Wellkens.

In the men’s race the Belgium Gerrit Schellens was made the European Champion. In the swim the Daniel Hehle had a superb swim of 49.33. In 2nd place Nick Marland from Australia just a few seconds back with in third place Petr Tomas, CZE third. The heat and the big hills of the bike course came into play with Matula coming into T2 first and Nick Marland second. Third off the bike was Bernasconi from Italy. In the second run the athletes were subject to a thunderstorm but it was still hot through the town. Gerrit Schellens was by far the fastest runner coming home in 6.49.00 to take gold medal and ETU Champion. 2nd place went to Nils Goerke from the host country Germany 1 min 12 seconds later and third place was taken by the Australian Nick Marland 7 min 20 seconds behind first place. Because he was Australian the 3rd European Place went to Peter Vabrousek from the Checrepublik.

New on the www.etu-triathlon.org:
- Results and photos of the Immenstadt ETU Long Distance Triathlon European Championships
- Results of the Sofia Balkan Triathlon Championships
- Start list for the ETU U23 Triathlon European Championships
- Updated information for the Valsana ITU European International Triathlon Cup
- ETU Eurpean Ranking after Echternach (new ranking will come soon included Sofia)

COMPETITION MANAGEMENT MOVES TO THE BEACH: Gergely Markus, Athens Olympic Games Triathlon Competition Manager and his team moved their offices this week to the venue at Vouliagmeni. They will complete all of the final preparation from there. Gergely reports good progress at the venue, as seen in the photo above from the top of the temporary grandstands. All of the existing buildings on the beach have been removed to make room for the transition area and so the bike and run course can pass in front of the grandstands. Spectators will also have a good view of the swim from the stands. Click on the photo to get a full size image.

DELLY CARR SELECTED AS GREEK-AUSTRALIAN PHOTOGRAPHER. Delly Carr, the award-winning photographer famous within the triathlon family writes: After the Euro Soccer final of a few weeks back and with the Athens Olympics about to begin, it seems like being Greek is all the rage right now. And so SBS made the wise decision to do a TV feature for their nightly Sports program about a handsome, witty, and charming Greek Australian photographer headed for the Olympics. The photographer they chose was me !!! The 5 minute feature is about two Greek-Australian photographers, myself and Steve Christo from the Sydney Morning Herald. Our thoughts about sports photography and what we feel as Greek-Australians headed to the Olympics in the country where our heritage lies. It felt quite unusual being on the other side of the lens for once. A few of you have asked to know when it is likely to be scheduled for viewing. SBS have planned to show the feature for their nightly sports program at 7pm on Tuesday July 20. Being a feature piece, news will take priority, so if there are no Sport Drug Scandal news that day, the feature will proceed as planned. With continual sports doping stories ongoing, SBS do not want to do it on a night when the news is all about the latest athletes NOT going to Athens - might be a bit weird: "but there are two Australians who won't be kicked off the Olympic team for doping, sports photographers Delly Carr and Steve Christo... " If there is a change to the night it will show, I'll let you all know with as much warning as they give me. So I promised SBS that all of you would watch, and coupled with all of my relatives they should achieve the Big Fat Greek Rating they've always wanted!

BETTINA YOUNGE GIVES BIRTH TO TWINS: We thought it might be interesting for many of you who have met Bettina Younge, the USAT World Cup Coaches to know that she gave birth to twin girls recently. They were born at 27 weeks so they are in ICU and will be there for quite some time. Our best wishes go to Bettina and the girls (and of course dad), and hope everyone is home together soon.

•  Result and live coverage from the Edmonton and Corner Brook World Cup
•  Results and photos from the ITU Sofia Balkin Championships
•  Results and photos from the ITU Miyagi Asian Cup Triathlon
•  New event details for the Salford ITU World Cup