For 33 years, the Prince George Triathlon was part of the local sporting scene as an annual event.
That long-standing racing tradition has apparently died, due to a lack of interest at the organizing level.
Frank Blues, who took on the duties last year as interim race director and committee chair, says the decision to shelve the triathlon was made a few weeks ago when only two other people turned up at an organizational meeting.
Participation in the race, traditionally held in July, dropped significantly to just 58 entrants last year, down from 2014 when there were 125 racers in the swim, bike and run event.
"With a lack of interest and with a lack of volunteers to come forward and help arrange and support the triathlon we felt there was no point in going forward," said Blues.
"I posted a notice (about the meeting) on the triathlon website and also on our Facebook page. There wasn't a lot of notice but people who are interested are going to be tuned into that."
As a longtime participant who first entered the race in 1986, Blues is hopeful a new group of volunteers will revive it. Blues and the race committee last year spent hours working out a race plan which outlines details of the race and the work which needs to be done to stage the event and he said if anyone wants to take over the organization he would be willing to help.
"We have that race plan as a resource for anyone who wants to take this on," said Blues. "It was never my intent to take this on and I was quite happy to help someone transition into this role and that's still the case today. We need a nucleus of four or five people."
Blues also said it's not too late to make the race happen in 2017.
"Some of the early planning opportunities are missed but we could still arrange something," he said.
The budget for last year's race, sponsored by the Northern Sport Centre, was between $10,000 and $13,000. Locking up sponsorships is crucial to subsidize participation fees, and Blues said that especially becomes a concern when there are fewer racers to help defray the costs. There are also liability concerns which would have to be addressed to protect race organizers.
