Courtesy: USAT

Gatorade has been named the "Officials Sports Beverage of USA Triathlon," the organization announced Monday.

Gatorade will be providing resources for various USAT programs, including the national teams and coach and athlete development programs. A key component of the agreement is the Gatorade Race Sponsorship Program, which allows race directors of sanctioned events to receive sponsorship and product support from Gatorade.

The Gatorade Race Sponsorship Program for USA Triathlon will begin for events on and after July 1, 2005.

To qualify for the Gatorade Race Sponsorship Program, a race must meet the following criteria:

-- Events that are intermediate distance or longer with a minimum 30.1km bike portion
-- 400 participants or more
-- Regional championship and first-time events that are intermediate distance or longer regardless of the number of participants

Race series comprised of several smaller events (less than 400 participants) can qualify for the sponsorship program by submitting one request (or all requests together) for the entire race series. All races in the series that are part of that sponsorship program must be intermediate distance or longer.

In addition, Gatorade will be on-course at all USAT national championship events.

"We're thrilled to be back with USAT after a one-year hiatus," said Tom Fox, Gatorade Vice President of Sports Marketing. "The sport of triathlon has been an important part of our sponsorship efforts for over 15 years and this agreement gives the race directors what they need and gets us back on the course where we belong."

"USA Triathlon is excited to have Gatorade back as a marketing partner. It only makes sense that the leader in sports beverages should be aligned with one of the leaders of endurance sports," said USA Triathlon Executive Director Skip Gilbert.

"This organization would also like to thank my predecessor, Interim Executive Director Mike Greer, who got the ball rolling on this partnership."

For information about and an application for the Gatorade Race Sponsorship Program, go to www.usatriathlon.org/Event_Sanctioning/Event_Sanc tioning_Latest_News.htm.