Jonny Brownlee heading home as World Triathlon Championship returns to Leeds in 2022

Members of Great Britain’s victorious mixed relay triathlon team at this summer’s Olympic Games will get to race on the roads they know so well after it was announced the UK leg of the World Triathlon Championship Series is coming back to the city on the weekend of June 11-12.

Leeds has hosted the prestigious elite men’s and women’s races every year since 2016, barring the cancellation in 2020 due to Covid.

This summer’s pre-Tokyo race was hosted entirely in Roundhay Park due to the tighter restrictions, with 4,000 fans watching the men’s and women’s races, the Para-Series event and a whole host of amateur and open age-group triathlons.

It was the final year of the deal between Leeds Council and British Triathlon to stage the event but new terms have been brokered for 2022.

It is all part of British Triathlon’s new three-year strategy which includes a stand-alone Para-Series race in Swansea and the Super Series Grand Final in Sunderland.

More details of the Leeds leg will be revealed next week – will it stay in Roundhay Park or go back to touring more of the city – but the news will cheer Jonny Brownlee, who told the YEP last week he hopes to race in Leeds again next summer, and will now be able to do so as an Olympic champion.

Leader of Leeds City Council Councillor James Lewis said: “We are delighted Leeds will once again be hosting another major international event with the World Triathlon Championships Series in June.

“Since the city hosted the event for the first time in 2016, it has grown to become a much-anticipated fixture on the sporting calendar with Leeds firmly established as the home of triathlon in the UK, so we look forward to another fantastic event for everyone to enjoy both watching and taking part in the mass-participation elements across the weekend.”

Legacy in action...

Leeds is the centre of Great Britain’s triathlon world.

Alistair and Jonny Brownlee started the boom in 2012 at the London Olympics and their achievements brought the World Triathlon Championship Series to Leeds for the first time in 2016.

The weekend-long event has been held successfully in five of the last six years with amateurs, veterans and elite professionals all competing in their respective races.

The highlight was the men’s race in 2017 when Alistair Brownlee pipped younger brother Jonny to victory.

Jonny said: “One of my proudest moments is coming through the city centre with me and Alistair alone.

“We won’t be replicating that in 2022 with Alistair now retired, but for me to potentially have a good race in Leeds and finish on a high would be really special.”