daniel chigunwe
Ellina Mhlanga
Senior Sports Reporter
NATIONAL coach Pamela Fulton believes the National Duathlon Championships held over the weekend at Donnybrook Race Track provided their members with a platform to gear up for the 2024-2025 triathlon season.
The event attracted several regular triathletes and participants from cycling.
Upcoming athletes such as Rachel O’Donoghue and Zander Botha retained their titles in the Youth Category supersprint event.
Callum Smith and Stanley Chasakara were also among the familiar faces as they brace for the season.
“Looking at the athletes that raced today (Sunday), the triathletes, the numbers are pretty small in the sprint and supersprint category.
“But the performance from the athletes that were here was phenomenal.
“So, this was a fantastic training session for them.
“The first race is always your hardest and really it’s a bit of a shock to the system and from now on when they go into triathlon it’s going to be a lot easier for them having done this event today.”
The athletes will be competing for qualification to the South Africa Championships (youths and juniors) and next year’s Africa Championships.
They will also be looking forward to the Troutbeck event due to take place in March next year.
“Next weekend we have got the Pink Day for breast cancer and then the first selection race will be at the end of October.
“And that will also be the first of the school events. So, it’s going to be a big event. We have had great support today from Wise Owl, from Abbeys from St John’s and we will be expecting these schools, as well as six other schools, to be coming to that event.
“That will be the first selection race.”
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