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Ray Bande
Senior Reporter
THE 2023 edition of the annual hard sports tourism event – the Bonaqua Africa Triathlon Cup Troutbeck – which is expected to see athletes from a variety of countries across the globe descending on the undulating terrain of the Eastern Highlands in Nyanga, rolls into life today (Friday).
Soft sports tourism is when a tourist travels to participate in recreational sporting, or signing up for leisure interests, but the Bonaqua ATC Troutbeck is a hard sports tourism event, given that it is a World Ranking points for Elite athletes with ITU ranking system.
This means that the points scored by Elite athletes will ultimately become Olympics Ranking Qualification points for 2024 Olympics.
Athletes from as far afield as Austria, Bermuda, Chile, Ireland, Finland, Guam, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mauritius, Morocco, Netherlands, Poland, South Africa, Togo, Ukraine and Mexico, will be rubbing shoulders in this swim, ride and run contest.
Triathlon is an endurance multi-sport race, consisting of swimming, cycling and running over various distances.
The preparations for the 2023 Bonaqua Africa Triathlon Cup Troutbeck is a huge operation that took months of planning and gained momentum, with the inclusion of Simbisa Brands to their Sponsor Group for the 2023 edition of the event, alongside Coca Cola, Schweppes, Cimasi-Go, CFAO Motor Group, Ecocash and Rooneys.
In the run-in of their preparations early this week, the crew started with “building the venue” that many have come to know – a blank canvas that is transformed into one of the most incredible race venues.
32 Elite men and women arriving from all over the world, many of them have been doing an Africa Circuit racing at Maselspoort and Port Elizabeth in South Africa and also had some action at the Africa Triathlon Cup Swakopmund in Namibia before they finally came to Zimbabwe.
Event director, Rick Fulton was quoted saying: “We are very excited to have yet another blue-chip brand coming on board for this event, now in its 15th consecutive year.
“We welcome Simbisa Brands on board and hope that this will be the start of long relationship with the sport and the event. As with our entire Sponsor Group, we value their loyalty and commitment to this event and we sincerely hope that they benefit exponentially from the branding, marketing and media exposure.”
On the list of participants, the 2023 edition will see the return of two-time Troutbeck Elite Men’s gold medallist, Ayan Beisenbayev from Kazakhstan who will be hoping for a hat-trick of victories at this tough event.
Returning athletes to Troutbeck also include Dylan Nortje and Shaun Wolfaardt from South Africa.
Wolfaardt won the 2022 Troutbeck Africa Triathlon Junior Cup and has now moved up to the Under-23 level.
Also returning is Badr Siwane from Morocco, Martin Demuth from Austria, Michal Oliwa from Poland, Meirlan Iskakov from Kazakhstan and Laurent L’Entete from Mauritius.
Elite Women returnees are Shanae Williams who was the runner-up in 2022, Bridget Theunissen and Jamie-Sue Vermaas, all from South Africa. Athletes from other African nations also include Togo, Mauritius and Mozambique.
For the Africa Triathlon Junior Cup Troutbeck, so far 13 Junior Elite athletes have been registered.
Indications were that, still to be added to are the Zimbabwean contingent of Anje Vans, Makanaka and Matipa Mawere, George Ascott, Nicole Madya, Duwan Botha and the Mthethwa twins, Mandlenkosi and Musawenkosi. Junior athlete representation from South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe will make up the Junior Elite field.
For the local athletes there is a full schedule of supporting events that offer participants a variety of events related to swimming, biking and running formats, plus the added spectacle of their families and supporters being able to watch the Elite and Junior athletes compete at this high level of international triathlon competition.
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