2018 Major League Tri Championship Set for Saturday

This weekend we’ll be livestreaming MLT’s championships featuring the sport’s first-ever cryptocurrency prize purse.

This Saturday marks the final event of Major League Triathlon’s 2019 super sprint season. Hosted in Charlotte, N.C., on Oct. 6, the championship mixed team relay race will host nine teams of two men and two women each. Heading into the event, the San Diego Stingrays lead the points total with 294 points, but because the final race will count as 1.5x the amount of normal points, teams from Carolina, Gold Coast, and Arizona are within striking distance with 292, 290 and 288 points, respectively.

The Charlotte event is also notable as it marks the first time in history that a portion of a pro triathlon prize purse will be paid out in cryptocurrency. In a partnership between Bitcoin.com and MLT athletes will earn bitcoin cash (BCH) bonuses for the top five individual times of the day—paid out instantaneously following the race’s finish. MLT’s CEO and founder says that not only will it showcase the new currency but it will also make paying out prize money to the athletes much easier by obviating the need to mail checks to often nomadic and international pros.

Competing for a slice of the cryptocurrency virtual pie on Saturday is a substantial field of domestic and foreign pros: top ten Rio Olympian, 2016 ITU sprint European champion, and 2017 ITU WTS Grand Final winner Vincent Luis (FRA); 2016 Olympian and mixed relay world champion Ben Kanute (USA); and 2012 Olympian Emma Jackson (AUS). Each athlete on each team will complete a 300m swim, a 6-7K bike, and a 1.5K run before handing it off to the next member, so expect to see lead changes and fast racing as the entire championship event generally lasts less than 80 minutes.

Triathlete will also be broadcasting the championship event live on our Facebook page, so be sure to follow us and check back at 8pm ET (click here for your local time) to see who takes this year’s title.