The beginning of success: Performance trends and cut-off values for junior and the U23 triathlon categories

Background: This study sought to determine cut-off values for each triathlon discipline to achieve podium in Junior (short distance; 750 m swim, 20 km cycle and 5 km run) and U23 (standard/Olympic distance; 1.5 km swim, 40 km cycle and 10 km run) triathlon events. Additionally, we aimed to inves-tigate which discipline has the largest relationship with overall Junior and U23 triathlon performance, and the effect of sex and time in performance trends. Methods: We included all data from Junior and U23 official races (International Triathlon Federation; ITU) of Junior (n = 3,314 finishes) and U23 (n = 5,092 finishes) categories held from 1999 to 2018. Results: Men were significantly faster than women in both Junior (11.13%) and U23 (12.28%) categories. Swimming and cycling times were faster in 2009-2018 than in the 1999-2008 decade for men (3.36%; 6.49%), women junior (6.50%; 7.09%), men (0.15%; 3.46%) and women U23 (1.61%; 3.31%) respectively. Cycling was the discipline with the greatest influence on overall triathlon performance in Junior and U23 categories, regardless of sex or rank position. The cut-off values for the Junior category were (men/ women): swimming, 9.2/9.4 min; cycling, 31.9/38.2 min; running, 16.8/18.9 min. U23's cut-off values were (men/women): swim, 18.0/19.4 min, cycling: 63.4/70.1 min; run, 33.9/38.7 min. Conclusion: Cycling was the discipline with the greatest influence on overall performance for both men and women in Junior and U23 categories. Moreover, swimming and cycling performances increased over the years for both sexes. (c) 2021 The Society of Chinese Scholars on Exercise Physiology and Fitness. Published by Elsevier (Singapore) Pte Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommo ns.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study determined the cut-off values for each discipline in junior and U23 triathlon events and investigated the relationship between disciplines and overall performance. Cycling was found to have the greatest influence on overall performance, and swimming and cycling performances have improved over the years for both sexes.