Breaking news -- Triathlon coming to Amelia Island

By AMELIA A. HART
amelia.hart@mynassausun.com

Amelia Island will host its first triathlon — the Atlantic Coast Triathlon at Amelia Island — on Saturday, Oct. 4., the Amelia Island-Fernandina Beach-Yulee Chamber of Commerce announced today.

The event, sponsored by Gatorade, Open Road Bicycles and Hammer Nutrition, will feature a 1.2-mile swim at Main Beach, a 56-mile cycle along the coast and through the island interior and a 13.1-mile out-and-back run through Fort Clinch State Park.

The event will have a field of 800 participants for the Long Course event and 200 for the Olympic-distance “Ameliaman.”

Chamber officials said they have been working for a year with the Amelia Island Tourism Development Council and Fernandina Beach to hammer out logistics for the triathlon.

DRC Sports, which also puts on the Jacksonville Triathlon Series, will produce the event.

The announcement comes as Amelia Island is facing the potential loss of its premier athletic event, the women’s tennis tournament at the Amelia Island Plantation that had been sponsored for more than 20 years by Bausch & Lomb.

As reported in the Times-Union June 28, Octagon, which organizes the tournament, is in negotiations to move the event to the Sawgrass Country Club.