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Ellina Mhlanga–Senior Sports Reporter
IT’S just two days before the Bonaqua Africa Triathlon Cup takes place at the Troutbeck Resort in Nyanga and for Zimbabwe, the focus is going to be mainly on the Junior Cup where they have a number of athletes taking part.
The annual event will see elite men and women competing for honours on Saturday.
Zimbabwe will be represented by Greer Wynn in the elite women. She won a bronze medal last year and is the only representative for the hosts in the elite category.
The Africa Cup will run in concurrently with the Junior Cup event and the hosts have a number of athletes in this section.
In the junior men category, Zimbabwe will be represented by Duwan Botha, Matipa Mawere, Mandlenkosi Mthethwa and George Ascott. Makanaka Mawere, Emma Lidsba, Inkosinomusa Mthethwa, Jessica Fuller and Brooklyn Tippett will compete in the junior women category.
Most of the juniors were in South Africa more than a week ago where they also competed in another Africa Junior Cup event.
National coach, Pamela Fulton, said despite a busy schedule for most of the athletes, she is hoping for some positive results on Saturday. “Troutbeck is just around the corner now and having got back from South Africa, the junior athletes have been exceptionally busy with school commitments, and with different inter-schools’ athletics.
“Everyone seem to do exceptionally well in athletics and I think a lot of them are really tired having done so much training and racing with regards to triathlon and school. But I think they are all excited and ready for this event and hopefully they are not too tired.
“There is a lot commitment, I know one or two of the athletes are going to have to travel late to get to the Troutbeck event very early in the morning due to school commitments,” said Fulton. For the juniors this is their last opportunity to qualify for the Africa Championships to be held later in the year.
“Saturday for the juniors is once again an Africa Cup event and we have an incredible international field of 19 coming to compete here. So once again in the Africa Cup event, it’s going to be really tough for our juniors who once again are bottom of the category age-wise with majority of them being 16 or 17 years old, and one of them is 18.
“But obviously this doubles up as our National Championships, so I am looking forward to see who performs well and become our national champion in each category.
“So not only are they gunning for the Africa Cup event, they are also gunning to try and get within 10 percent of the winners’ time to qualify for Africa Championships. This is their last opportunity to qualify and also they are gunning for national championships’ title. So (it is) a really big event for all of them and I am wishing them all the best on Saturday,” Fulton said.
The youth section for the national event is also expected to produce some exciting competition with the limelight on Rohnan Nicholson, Callum Smith and Zach Summers in the boys’ competition.
Tayleigh Taylor, Nicole Madya and Anje van As are the favourites in the girls’ section.
They were all part of the team that took part in the South African Youth Championships in February. Van As won gold in that competition and will be hoping for another race on Saturday.
The Africa Cup has attracted athletes from Kazakhstan, Slovakia, Germany, Kenya, Poland, Austria, South Africa, Namibia, Mauritius and the United States.
Online Reporter