The Executive Board had met in the Egyptian city of Luxor to discuss the road to Tokyo 2020 and governance, as well as updates to competition structures and rules, the details of which they have now announced.

Changes have been made to before the race procedures, with athletes or Paratriathletes who enter the briefing hall after the briefing has started or miss the briefing, but have informed the technical delegate about their absence, will receive a time penalty to be served in transition 1 rather than having a delayed start.

Athletes who miss the briefing due to unforeseeable circumstances, but who have informed the technical delegate about their absence by the time of the briefing, may file an appeal against the head referee’s decision on the time penalty at least two hours before the competition starts.

If athletes do not respect the check-in times, they may be penalised or stopped racing.

Changes will also be implemented to the procedure of appeals and protest, allowing official results to be modified by the World Triathlon Tribunal after a level two appeal, or by the Court of Arbitration for Sport for a level three appeal. 

A 2x2 mixed relay competition is being introduced for all types of triathlon, as is a relay in the aquathlon.

The 2x2 mixed relay team will consist of a male and female athlete who will complete in either an aquathlon, triathlon, cross triathlon, duathlon, cross duathlon or winter triathlon twice each.

The mixed relay qualification for ITU events will now based on the mixed relay world ranking.

The Executive Board also approved that Athletes may not compete within 24 hours at the same event in more than one triathlon or multisport competition when one competition is of standard distance or longer. 

The previous time for this was 36 hours.

In Paratriathlon, the rules have been updated for the the interval start values for the PTVI and PTWC classes.

Changes have been made to the the temperatures of the water on which the swim segment can be still held on super-sprint and mixed relay events, and a matrix which takes into consideration water quality results, sanitary inspections and weather forecast has been introduced to ensure safe environment for the athletes.

All of these changes will be applied from January 1 next year, with the next revision of rules to take place at the end of 2020.

"Our team has studied all cases and scenarios, especially some affecting rules implemented in the last years, changed things that were obsolete and updated some others in order to guarantee the best conditions for all our athletes and our events," Gergely Markus, the ITU sport director, said. 

"We will implement procedures to support even more our Technical Delegates all around the world of the growing challenges mainly occurred by environmental conditions.

"The goal is to make our events even more spectacular and fair for all athletes, and implement new rules and competition possibilities to keep on growing our sport."