Severe weather forces Mooloolaba Tri event to close
Disappointed spectators were sent home last night after the Mooloolaba Triathlon was forced to cancel an event due to the severe weather that hit the Coast.
Sunshine Coast
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DISAPPOINTED spectators were sent home last night after the Mooloolaba Triathlon was forced to cancel an event due to the severe weather that hit the Sunshine Coast.
The ASICS Mooloolaba Twilight 5km run was cancelled after heavy rain and lightning damaged the event's set up.
Organisers said, while it's rare to close an event, it was a no-brainer decision to keep the athletes safe.
Head of Operations Rebecca van Tooss said they were monitoring the weather throughout most of Friday, but when a severe storm warning came through just after 6pm they decided to cancel the event.
"It's certainly not our first option, but unfortunately these things happen," she said.
"We knew that there was a severe weather warning ... we monitored that and at the end of the day it just comes down to athlete safety."
Ms van Tooss said while athletes and spectators were disappointed they couldn't compete, everyone understood that safety came first.
"Everyone was quite understanding. There weren't too many that were keen to go out in it anyway," she said.
"There wasn't much of an appetite for people to go out last night."
While the Sunshine Coast is expected to receive more rain and a possible thunderstorm this afternoon, Ms van Tooss said it looked like everything was on track for the triathlon to continue smoothly.
Originally published as Severe weather forces Mooloolaba Tri event to close