ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Chicago Welcomes Jabra as Series Global Partner

CHICAGO, Feb. 2, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The International Triathlon Union (ITU) today announced that leading sports audio producer Jabra will be a global partner of the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Series, including the series Grand Final on Sept. 15-20 in Grant Park.

In addition to the Chicago Grand Final and World Championships, Jabra's partnership includes series stops in Abu Dhabi, Gold Coast, London, Hamburg, Stockholm and Edmonton. Athletes entered in one of these races will have an opportunity to win a trip and entry to one of the subsequent WTS events listed here as per the company's global agreement.

With the recent introduction of the Jabra Sport Pulse Wireless, the first Dolby-enhanced wireless earbuds with a built-in heart rate monitor, Jabra is poised to become a category leader.  The Sport Pulse, which offers superior sound quality for music entertainment during an athlete's training, also provide real-time in-ear coaching through the intuitive integration with their proprietary Jabra Sports Life app.  Positioned as a valuable training tool to help athletes "Beat their Best", the Jabra Sport Pulse is befitting to the lifestyles and rigorous training schedule of triathletes and runners who compete in marathons and other races. 

"Not only are Jabra's unique headphones aptly designed for the active, early adaptive triathlon demographic, the company's message to improve your performance with hard work and preparation resonates strongly with ITU's core values," said Marisol Casado, ITU President and IOC Member.

Jabra will activate at seven of the ten WTS races with its revolutionary performance earbuds, and will run a Series-long competition, offering participants a chance to win a trip and entry into the next event in the calendar. Furthermore, in line with its campaign to help athletes "beat their best", Jabra will also host the official results at the majority of events across the Series, culminating with the Chicago Grand Final results.

"Triathlon is the ultimate healthy lifestyle sport, and the World Triathlon Series is the pinnacle circuit for the sport, offering both elite competition and mass participation races, which is a perfect match for Jabra. We believe in inspiring and enabling everyone to go out and beat their best, whatever that may be – whether it's their first triathlon and the aim is to just finish, or to shave seconds off that personal best. We couldn't be more excited to be a partner for the 2015 Series and further enhance our brand as a leader in sports audio solutions," said Jonathan Pennington, Jabra Brand Director.

"We are excited to partner with Jabra for the ITU World Triathlon Series Grand Final and World Championships in Chicago later this year," said Franzi Petermann, Manager Director of the ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Chicago. "We are preparing to welcome thousands of the best triathletes in the world to Grant Park, and Jabra's interest in inspiring athletes to beat their best fits perfectly with our event."

Entering its seventh year in 2015, the ITU World Triathlon Series will showcase ten first-class events, including a debut in the Middle East with Abu Dhabi set to open the season March 6-7, and the Grand Final and World Championships at Chicago's Grant Park from Sept. 15-20. Each event will feature elite races that offer Olympic qualifying points en route to the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games. Events will also offer amateur races, enabling participation from everyday triathletes on a global scale, with the elite races broadcast internationally and streamed online to more than 160 ITU-affiliated National Federations.

NOTES TO EDITOR

About Jabra:

Jabra is a leader in sports audio offering a family of wireless sport earbuds that are both sweat and weatherproof, and which won't fall out even in the most intense of training sessions. Offering premium wireless sound and a perfect fit, Jabra is enabling fitness lovers to take their training to the next level with intelligent fitness apps, alongside integration with a wide range of fitness communities. Employing over 900 people worldwide and, in 2013, producing an annual revenue which amounted to DKK 2,612 million, Jabra is a world leader in the development, manufacturing and marketing of a broad range of communications and audio solutions.

2015 ITU World Series Calendar:
06-07 March – Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
28-29 March - Auckland, New Zealand
11-12 April - Gold Coast, Australia
25-26 April - Cape Town, South Africa
16-17 May - Yokohama, Japan
30-31 May - London, Great Britain
18-19 July - Hamburg, Germany
22-23 August - Stockholm, Sweden
5-6 September - Edmonton, Canada
15-20 September - Chicago, USA (Grand Final)

About ITU World Triathlon Grand Final Chicago

The City of Chicago joined the ITU World Triathlon Series in 2014 and will host the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final and World Championships in September 2015. Chicago will welcome 150 of the world's top Olympic-distance triathletes as they compete for a world championship title less than a year prior to the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games. In addition to the elite races, the event features top-flight sprint and Olympic-distance races for age-group athletes, paratriathletes, juniors and under-23s, as well as an aquathlon to kick off the action. In all, more than 8,000 of the world's best triathletes will compete for world titles over five days of competition. The ITU World Triathlon Grand Final and World Championships are hosted by USA Triathlon, the National Governing Body for the sport of triathlon in the United States, and Lagardère Unlimited. Launched in 2009, the ITU World Triathlon Series is televised in more than 160 countries. Visit chicago.triathlon.org for more information.

About the International Triathlon Union (ITU):

The International Triathlon Union is the world governing body for the Olympic sport of Triathlon and all related MultiSport disciplines including Duathlon, Aquathlon, CrossTriathlon and Winter Triathlon.  ITU was founded in 1989 at the first ITU Congress in Avignon, France. It has maintained its headquarters in Vancouver, Canada since then and also has offices in Lausanne, Switzerland and Madrid, Spain. It now has over 167 affiliated National Federations on five continents and is the youngest International Federation in the Olympic Games.  Triathlon was awarded Olympic Games status in 1994 and made its Olympic debut in Sydney 2000.

Triathlon is also featured in the Asian Games, Pan American Games and Commonwealth Games. Paratriathlon was accepted into the Paralympic Games in 2010 and will make its Paralympic debut in Rio 2016.  ITU is proudly committed to supporting the development of the sport worldwide through strong relationships with continental and national federations, working with its partners to offer a balanced sport development programme from grassroots to a high-performance level.

For more information, visit: www.triathlon.org

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