Africa Triathlon

It’s that time of the year again, to take a step back in time to remember this year’s Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Series through the eyes of some of the world’s best sports photographers. They were on hand to capture every twist, turn, and colourful moment in the each and every world series race, but now it’s your turn to decide the official ITU Photo of the Year by voting on your favourite image below. Each weekly winner then earns the right to appear in the ITU Photo of the Year final. In addition to the contest, readers will hear from each event photographer about their favourite shot from the event, which will be published alongside the winning pictures from each week.

In week seven of this competition, it’s the big one - the 2011 Dextro Energy Triathlon ITU World Championship Grand Final Beijing.

In the men’s race, Alistair Brownlee captured his second ITU World Championship with another Grand Final win, he’s won each of the three finales since the series started. This time, he beat Sven Riederer over the line, while Jonathan Brownlee came in third, which was enough for overall silver. Read the race recap and watch video highlights here. In the women’s race, Helen Jenkins also claimed her second ITU World Championship, but Andrea Hewitt stole the show on the day with her most dominant performance so far in 2011. It was Hewitt’s first series win in more than two years, since Madrid in 2009. Melanie Annaheim scored her first series podium with bronze. Read the race recap and watch video highlights here.

But Grand Final week is much more than just the elite races, with junior and U23 men’s and women’s world titles decided, world championships in aquathlon, the thousands of age-group athletes fighting it out in dozens of categories and the first Paratriathlon world titles since the sport was included on the programme for the Rio 2016 Paralympic Games. This diversity is represented in the finalist images. The other overriding theme this year were the reminders from the last event in Beijing, the 2008 Olympic Games, and that’s also evident in this gallery hand-picked by photographers Delly Carr and Janos Schmidt.

Remember to scroll to the bottom of the images and vote for your favourite, to determine which image from Beijing makes it into the final of the 2011 ITU Photo of The Year.