There are still 18 days until the 2011 Guatape ITU World Cup, but organisers, officials and supporters are already looking forward to the future after the announcement of the official 2012 ITU World Cup schedule coincided with a press briefing last week.

As local press gathered in Medellin last week Doctor Julio Roberto Gómez Gaitán - the main director of sports in the region - delivered the news that Guatape would be on the ITU World Cup circuit in 2012. Everyone packed into the room gave the news a round of applause. Guatape will be the fifth stop in a nine event World Cup series in 2012, with the elite races scheduled for July 1.

The press briefing was to give more information about this year’s event which is now just a few weeks away. It is the first time there has been a World Cup in Colombia since a 1992 race in San Andreas, and the briefing - led by Doctor Julio Roberto Gómez, Manager of Indeportes and general director of the Guatape World Cup, and Doctor José Luis Echeverry, President of the Colombian Triathlon Federation, included information on the route, the competitors and countries that will come to Guatape for the World Cup.

The 2011 Guatape ITU World Cup will be a weekend full of international triathlon, with age-group races starting from 6.30am (local time) on Saturday November 5, before elite athletes race on Sunday November 6. Both elite start lists are full of ITU stars, including two-time Olympic medallist Simon Whitfield, World Cup winners Brent McMahon, Matt Chrabot, Mariko Adachi, Vendula Frintova, and the most successful athlete in world cup history, Vanessa Fernandes. Fernandes already has an incredible 20 world cup titles and is currently on the comeback trail, after taking a break from triathlon in the first half of 2011.

For more information on this year’s event, please click here.