Pete de Wet: Triathlon NZ CEO on NZ hosting the World Triathlon Cup, partnership with World Triathlon

Triathlon New Zealand's claimed hosting rights for pinnacle events in Tauranga over the next three years. 

A World Triathlon Cup will take place in the Bay of Plenty next year, before a top-level Championship Series race in 2027 and the Series' Grand Final in 2028. 

Triathlon NZ chief executive Pete de Wet says they could see upwards of 3000 Kiwis racing across age groups and the all-comers race in 2028. 

He told Mike Hosking there’s a big interest in the sport from an age group perspective, and it’s great for the athletes to be able to compete at home instead of having to chump on a plane. 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Good news for New Zealand and especially our sports cred
tower On has been handed the hosting rights for the
twenty twenty eight World Triathlon Champs three year deal several
events in twenty six and twenty seven leading up. It's
also expected to generate about twenty five million and tourism spending. Now.
Pete Devitt is Triathlon New Zealand's CEO and is with us.
Pete morning, hold on, there's my mouse stand by, you're

(00:23):
with us? Yeah, good demand for it. I mean, did
you have to compete with the whole lot of countries
or cities.

Speaker 2 (00:30):
Yeah, yeah, we did. But to be fair, we've been
working on this for about three years and tried to
position this with World Triathlon quite some time ago, primarily
through hosting World Cup events over the last three years
and really showing them that we've got what it takes
to deliver this event for World Triathlon and for New Zealand.
So yeah, really excited that we're here today and we're

(00:52):
able to tell the world about this.

Speaker 1 (00:53):
How many people would come from New Zealand as opposed
to from around the world.

Speaker 2 (00:58):
So we'd expect to have probably we have about twelve
to thirteen hundred age groups racing in the age group
race in twenty twenty eight of a field of about
four and a half thousand, so a fairly large contingent
of New Zealand Actute twould race in the age group race. Yees,
So a big interest in the sport from an age
group perspective, and obviously great for them to be able

(01:18):
to actually compete at home instead of jumping on a
plane and having to travel around the world to compete
in the world tames.

Speaker 1 (01:24):
It must have. Did it help? Do you know for
a fact it helps that we're actually quite good at
this is a sport.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, it does help, certainly does help. And I think
that's also a large driver for us. Was given that
Hayden will likely bow out of the Olympic distance racing
in twenty twenty eight. It's a fitting endo his career
for him to finish it up in Taranto, which is
pretty close to his hometown.

Speaker 1 (01:47):
Yeah. And what about Tewrong when you're looking from an
international point of view and handing out these sort of prizes,
is Tawrong as a gateway or problem as opposed to say,
in Auckland, which is easier for the world to get to.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
Yeah, not really. I think what we've at is and
from a World trialf one perspective, they kind of look
at it as iconic cities or beautiful destinations. So I
think from our perspective, Taiwano fits the ball of beautiful destinations.
And you know, we had the seventy point three World Champs,
Ironman World Champs here in Topoin in December last year,

(02:19):
over six thousand athletes competing, So I don't think there's
too much of a concern around getting athletes from main
centers into regional New Zealand. We've proven we can do
it before and where we'd easily be able to do
it again.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Exciting times. Well done, congratulations on a peaked Avot triath
on New Zealand CEO.

Speaker 2 (02:36):
For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, listen live to
news talks.

Speaker 1 (02:39):
It'd be from six am weekdays, or follow the podcast
on iHeartRadio