Ironman has announced that the 2016 Ironman 70.3 World Championships will take place on the beautiful Australian Sunshine Coast - a place rich in triathlon tradition.

After many years in Clearwater, Florida and few years outside of Las Vegas, Nevada, this year the 70.3 Worlds will finally move outside the USA and take place in Mont Tremblant, Canada. In April of this year it was announced that the 2015 event will be in Europe at Zell am See / Kaprun in Austria, but from there these popular championships will move to Mooloolaba, Australia in 2016. Each of these locations offers magnificent scenery and promises great racing, plus it allows folks from other continents to have easier access, as before it was very US centric.

The Mooloolaba Triathlon Festival has been a popular Aussie racing event for over 20 years but it is best known for the ITU stars racing there. We still may see some of those there, including those who already moved over to the longer course non drafting races. But to many athletes this will be a completely new and unique experience.

“We are excited to welcome triathletes from throughout our region and around the world for what we are confident will be a superb experience,” said IRONMAN Asia Pacific CEO, Geoff Meyer. “The Sunshine Coast will be a magnificent setting – whether it is your goal to qualify for the World Championship or be a participant at the IRONMAN 70.3 Sunshine Coast triathlon, it will be a race week triathletes won’t want to miss.”

So start saving your pennies now as all these new locations indeed look to be fantastic venues. Well, clearly also be worth just visiting no matter which race will be held there. So now you have more than one reason to travel there.