153692 20260430141015.0 doi 10.1007/s40279-025-02193-7 sideral 143763 ART-2025-143763 eng James, Carl Thermal and biomechanical responses of amateur, elite and world cup athletes during a world cup sprint triathlon in the heat 2025 Access copy available to the general public Unrestricted Objectives: Core temperature (TCORE), skin temperature (TTORSO) and running kinematics were measured across different athlete categories at a World Cup Sprint Triathlon, occurring during a heatwave (~ 25–31 °C Wet Bulb Globe Temperature [WBGT]). Methods: Sixty-six triathletes participated: 21 World Cup (7 females), 32 Hong Kong-Elite (HK-Elite; 8 females) and 13 Amateur (6 females). Results: Seventeen triathletes displayed a TCORE > 40.0 °C and two > 41.0 °C. Peak TCORE was not different between athlete categories (World Cup: 39.7 ± 0.6 °C; HK-Elite: 39.9 ± 0.8 °C; Amateur: 39.5 ± 0.8 °C; p = 0.357). However, there was an interaction between race phase and category (p = 0.001). Changes in TCORE for World Cup (2.4 ± 0.4 °C) and HK-Elite (2.5 ± 1.0 °C) were greater than for Amateurs (1.5 ± 0.7 °C). Peak TTORSO was higher in HK-Elites during afternoon races compared with morning World Cup races (p < 0.001). TTORSO reduced during the swim (pbonf < 0.001), then increased during the bike (pbonf < 0.001) but not run (pbonf = 1.00). World Cup athletes (3.15 ± 0.23 m) displayed longer strides (HK-Elites: 2.64 ± 0.35 m; Amateurs: 2.18 ± 0.30 m; pbonf < 0.001), shorter contact times (209.3 ± 13.7 ms; HK-Elites: 237.8 ± 23.0 ms; Amateurs: 262.9 ± 31.0 ms, pbonf < 0.001) and higher stride frequency (182.9 ± 6.3 strides.min−1) than HK-Elites (173.9 ± 6.8 strides.min−1) and Amateurs (173.2 ± 8.7 strides.min−1, pbonf < 0.001), which were comparable. There were no biomechanical changes over time and no interactions. Conclusion: Different athlete categories displayed comparable peak TCORE responses. Amateur triathletes tolerated TCORE > 40.0 °C without heat illness symptoms. TCORE may rise > 41 °C during a sprint triathlon held under Blue flag conditions (~ 26 °C WBGT), questioning the suitability of sprint-distance triathlons as a safer alternative to Olympic-distance triathlons under Red/Black flag conditions (> 30.1 °C WBGT). info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess by https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/deed.es info:eu-repo/semantics/article info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Múñiz-Pardos, Borja Universidad de Zaragoza (orcid)0000-0002-9191-9033 Ihsan, Mohammed Lo, Ka-Kay Lam, Wing-Kai Iglesias, Dani Peña Angeloudis, Konstantinos Teng, Yi Jiao, Jiao Hu, Ke Wong, KaKi Guppy, Fergus Racinais, Sébastien Chalmers, Samuel Migliorini, Sergio Wu, Kenneth Pitsiladis, Yannis 1006 245 Universidad de Zaragoza Dpto. Fisiatría y Enfermería Área Educación Física y Depor. 55 (2025), 1515-1526 Sports med. SPORTS MEDICINE 0112-1642 2165281 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/153692/files/texto_completo.pdf Versión publicada 2514866 http://zaguan.unizar.es/record/153692/files/texto_completo.jpg?subformat=icon icon Versión publicada oai:zaguan.unizar.es:153692 articulos driver 2026-04-30-14:05:37 ARTICLE