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Ellina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
IT’S just a few days before the 2022-2023 triathlon season takes off and the national association is hopeful of another exciting and fruitful season.
The new season officially begins this Sunday with the first event set for Mount Pleasant Pool.
It will see a number of races taking place.
The competition will mark the first selection race for youth and juniors. They will have the opportunity to start accumulating selection points of the season.
Triathlon Zimbabwe president, David Ellis, said after staging three events, including duathlon to prepare athletes for the new season, they are optimistic of better fortunes as sport continues to recover from the ripple effects of Covid-19.
“Although this is the official opening event for the season, we incorporated three events as precursors to the season.
“This was done to ensure that we accommodated the new interest in duathlon. It provided a platform for the Africa Championships athletes to prepare for their event in September and to give continuity for triathlon given the disjointed previous seasons caused by Covid-19.
“We expect to continue to nurture the sport in the upcoming season and beyond ensuring that the sport evolves and continues to grow from strength to strength.
“We will continue to work with the nursery of our sport being the schools and also with our partner sports being swimming, cycling and running to encourage cross pollination in our multisport quest.
“We have also planned to send a new group of coaches to Seoul, North Korea, for high performance training to enhance our coaching skill base,” said Ellis.
National coach, Pamela Fulton, is looking forward to the season that will see them staging their inaugural school events.
Sunday’s event also presents a platform for the junior and youth teams going to the Africa Championships in Morocco to gauge their preparedness ahead of their departure on September 18.
The championships are running from September 23 to 25 in Agadir, Morocco.
“What an exciting start to our season as we wish our Zimbabwe team every success as they travel next week to the Africa Championships 2022 Agadir, Morocco.
“We have an exceptionally busy calendar of events this season, not only with our selection events but also a few inaugural school triathlons.
“On one side of the scale, this season we have quite a few athletes entering the Under-13 category, trying out for the team to South Africa Championships, whilst on the other side we have Andie Kuipers with her OS (Olympic Solidarity) scholarship continuing her qualifying quest for Paris 2024.
“This is all very encouraging for the future of triathlon in Zimbabwe,” said Fulton.
United States-based Kuipers is hoping to qualify for the 2024 Olympic Games, a goal she has been working towards for quite some time now.
Sunday’s programme will also feature duathlon events.
Bongani Ndlovu
Online Reporter