dyton mupawaenda
Sports Reporter
TRIATHLON Zimbabwe national coach Pamela Fulton says she is looking forward to giving back to upcoming athletes as she heads the Blue Bay Africa Triathlon – World Triathlon Youth and Junior Development Camp in Mauritius.
The camp gets underway tomorrow and runs until next Saturday.
It caters for athletes between the ages of 16 to 19.
Zimbabwe will be represented by Duwan Botha at the development camp.
He is also set to compete in the Africa Triathlon Junior Cup today, in the junior men category where he will face athletes from Mauritius, Mozambique, South Africa, France and Kenya. Fulton and Botha left for Mauritius on Thursday.
Fulton has over the years been part of the camps, mostly working with South Africa’s Riana Robertson. But this time around the two coaches will be heading different camps.
Fulton said the initiative is making a difference on the continent with some of the athletes that participated staying in the sport and progressing to the elite level.
“Normally I work with Riana, the two of us, but this time I have been assigned to the camp in Mauritius and I will be hosting the camp on my own whereas Riana will be hosting a camp prior to the Africa Championships next month in Egypt.
“So it’s really exciting. It’s really prestigious for me to be doing this. I am very fortunate and so grateful that I have these opportunities to be able to give back to athletes.
“So the great thing about these camps is that I have seen athletes over the years who participated in these (camps). And I now see some of them who have now progressed into the Under-23 elite category, and they are still in the sport, benefited hugely from the opportunities of these camps over the years, these development initiatives and doing really well,” said Fulton.
Some of the athletes that have benefited from the camps include Zimbabwe’s Andie Kuipers, who is now based in the United States.
Kuipers is scheduled to battle it out in the Under-23 women at the Africa Triathlon Sprint Championships Blue Bay tomorrow. It’s being held at the same venue as the Junior Africa Cup in Mauritius.
“So these initiatives are fantastic. I am really grateful to World Triathlon for giving us these initiatives, opportunities, for me as a coach to grow and develop and give back to the athletes.
“And also for the athletes to give them this information, its opportunities, which have helped them to grow to where they are today, at the elite level.” The camp will focus on post-event aspects such as race analysis, nutrition and training sessions among other topics.
The participants have to take part in today’s Junior Africa Cup and then another event next Saturday.
“So this camp actually has slightly changed because there is a second race which is happening the following Saturday, which is the last day of the camp. There are two races in Mauritius.
“So it wasn’t originally planned to be two races but it’s very convenient that these athletes are able to race twice within the one week. So the emphasis of this camp will be post-event but obviously we have to then also gear them up for the second race,” said Fulton.
Online Reporter