VANCOUVER - Nine talented young triathletes are celebrating selection by the International Triathlon Union (ITU) to compete as a member of the Team - BG Elite Athlete Development Project (EADP) at the Mooloolaba BG Triathlon World Cup in Australia on 25 March. The athletes, who are all seen as prospects for the Olympic Games, have gained automatic entry to the race and will benefit from an ITU support team of two coaches, bike mechanic and athletic trainer.

"Team BG was created to enable athletes who have the potential of being on the start in Beijing, but who lack resources in terms of finance and coaching,” said ITU President, Les McDonald. “Head to head competition at BG Triathlon World Cup events and the support network provided through Team BG will remove a lot of the barriers to realising their dream."

The programme was piloted at the Beijing BG Triathlon World Cup last September as one of the Sport Development programmes initiated through ITU’s partnership with global natural gas company, BG Group. It is the first of four World Cups identified as Team BG - EADP events in 2007. The athletes, selected from developing and emerging countries by their respective National Triathlon Federations, were chosen for their outstanding potential shown at the Continental Cup level.

"The development of triathlon across the world is a priority objective of our partnership with ITU,” commented Sara Sizer, Group Head of Marketing, BG Group. “Our investment in Team BG - EADP will give young athletes from newly formed and emerging National Federations the same opportunities as athletes from countries with a greater pool of resources. In the long term we hope this structure will see talented athletes, otherwise not afforded the opportunity, pursuing their potential at the very highest level."

The selected athletes will be accommodated as a team and supported in the build up to and throughout the race by an experienced team of coaches and mentors. The selected athletes are: Dan Alterman of Israel, Kimbeley Yap of Malaysia, Leonardo Chacon of Costa Rica, Svetlana Brkic of Serbia and Montenegro, Zvonko Cubric of Croatia, Mirja Kiviranta of Finland, Jin-Seob Shin of Korea, Nina Pekerman of Israel and Kostas Devanas of Greece.

“Triathlon is growing very fast as a sport and with so many talented athletes coming up, I am extremely proud to have been selected for Team BG,” said Leonardo Chacon of Costa Rica. “The support I will get from training and competing as a team with experienced coaches and athletes from other countries will be a great learning experience. I’m sure it will help towards my long term goal of competing at the Olympic Games.”

Following the race in Mooloolaba, there will be three further BG Triathlon World Cup events that make up the new Team BG - EADP initiative: Vancouver, Canada on 10 June; Belo Horizonte, Brazil on 20 October; Doha, Qatar on 7 December.