The first of an always packed schedule of multisport World Championships events for 2016 took place over the weekend in Zeltweg, Austria, with the ITU Winter Triathlon World Championships. This winter discipline comprises running, mountain biking and cross-country skiing and as we've note separately, Great Britain's Kerry McGawley won a Gold medal in the F35-39 category this year.

The Elite races were won by Pavel Andreev (RUS) and Yulia Surikova (RUS).

An discipline we are not too familiar with - and we suspect, that is the same for many of our readers - we thought we'd take an insight into the racing courtesy of the lens of these superb images from Austria.

(All images are ©Janos M. Schmidt/ITU Media/triathlon.org)

All smiles at the start for Yulia Surikova (RUS).

The Elite races started with a three lap, 7.2km run.

The MTB section was four laps, comprising 12km. No snow to be seen in this image...

The final leg was a 9.6km cross-country ski.

A family affair for the champion, Yulia Surikova (RUS).

Daniel Antonioli (#5) would eventually finish fourth, while Evgeny Kirilov (#4) came closest to toppling the champion, finishing just 15 seconds behind Andreev to take the Silver medal.

Transition 2 is a little more complex in Winter Triathlon.

For Pavel Andreev it was a fifth consecutive Winter Triathlon World Championship victory.

Plenty of smiles at the finish.

Not just snow... plenty of mud too, as the effort of racing shows.