Missing Sunderland Airshow doesn't mean we can't get behind the World Triathlon Championships

Some of the physically fittest people on Earth will descend upon our fair city; and we mean fittest.

The best among them will soon be Olympians. These people can swim a mile, pedal 20km then run 5km in less time than it takes most of us to hobble to the pub.

It’s free to watch and, if you can’t be there, BBC2 is broadcasting the Sunday’s event; hopefully showing the full glory of Sunderland’s beautiful shores.

We are constantly puzzled by those from other parts when they are taken aback by the “revelation” that Sunderland has beaches. Surely even the briefest gander at an atlas should at least confirm their possibility. We’re on the coast!

Profile. Thousands of spectators boosting the local economy. An international sporting event, other legs include Yokohama, Cagliari, Hamburg and Montreal.

Most people will find it difficult to moan. Alas, some will find any situation to be fertile ground for a whinge. The Wearside expression “He would twist on 21” is again the mot juste for the usual naysayers.

The main objection, as we shall generously describe it, is that a triathlon is not an airshow. Proponents of the bleeding obvious are happy to repeat this observation.

But the appearance of one is surely not contingent upon the absence of the other. The Sunderland International Airshow has not been held since 2019 and won’t return for the foreseeable future.

This is, according to Sunderland City Council, to help create a carbon neutral city and redress man-made climate change.

You can debate among yourselves the effectiveness of this. I’m not joining in. But it won’t bring the airshow back in 2023 and, even if it could, there is no reason not to get behind the triathlon.

The inconvenience to residents in Roker and Seaburn will be less than that incurred by the airshows. Marauding gangs of rival triathlon fans are not commonplace.

There will be short-term inconvenience; you can't make an omelette and all that. But most are aware of something called the greater good.

Support the triathlon. Support this city.