adminEllina Mhlanga Senior Sports Reporter
THE Bonaqua Africa Triathlon Cup Troutbeck event director, Rick Fulton, is confident of an exciting competition with some of the international athletes to grace this year’s edition having participated here before.
A strong field of 21 elite men and 12 elite women is set to compete at the Troutbeck Resort in Nyanga on Saturday.
There is also a promising field of 19 upcoming athletes – 10 junior men and 9 junior women – lined up for the Africa Junior Cup.
“So the international athletes start arriving today and tomorrow. So we are expecting about 52 international athletes across the elite and the elite junior.
“So we have got 33 elite men and women and the balance racing in the junior category from 20 different countries. So it’s looking very good.
“So we hope the locals will also bolster the entries and I think our numbers, (from) what Carol (Pakenham) told me this morning (yesterday), we are very good.
“So everything is looking fine. We had terrible weather yesterday (Tuesday) but it’s all gone away and it didn’t affect our operations, so things are going smoothly,” said Fulton.
In the elite men and women, some of the athletes have competed at Troutbeck before including Kazakhstan’s Ayan Beisenbayev, who won the event in 2016 and 2021.
Badr Siwane from Morocco, Martin Demuth from Austria, Michal Oliwa from Poland, Meirlan Iskakov from Kazakhstan and Laurent L’Entete from Mauritius have been at Troutbeck before.
Elite women returnees are Shanae Williams, who was the runner up in 2022, and Bridget Theunissen from South Africa.
Beisenbayev is ranked number one in the men’s section while Barbara De Koning from Netherlands is ranked first in the women’s section.
Some of the athletes competed in Cup events in South Africa and Namibia in the last two weeks, and they are likely to push each other, come Saturday.
“The athlete in the men’s field who is ranked number one, Ayan, he has is been here twice before and won on both occasions. But a lot of these athletes were in Namibia last weekend and the week before they were in South Africa racing Cup events.
“The only consistence is probably in the women’s race where the Dutch girl who is ranked number one I think, is probably the favourite to win.
“I think the men’s race, given the nature of the Troutbeck course, it’s pretty open. So the rankings are one thing but the performance on this course is another factor.
“But Ayan does know this course very well and he has won twice before, so I suppose he is got to be a favourite,” said Fulton.
The Troutbeck course is regarded is one of the toughest on the continent.
There are also a number of supporting events on the day such as duathlon, aquabike, off-road triathlon standard and sprint, aquathlon and open water swim – 5000m, 3000m, 1500m, 750m, and a 4x500m relay.
Triathlon Zimbabwe will also stage the national championships on the day.
All online entries close today but late entries will be accepted.
“The online entries close tomorrow (today). But we know we will have late entries on Friday and we do accept late entries because that’s what happens every year and the early bird cost of the entry is factored into the entry deadline.
“So if you miss the early bird you then pay the full amount. So it’s a discounted rate, so there are people who are not too concerned about that and are happy to enter late when they get to the venue on Friday for registration,” Fulton said.
The event has over the years been supported by various sponsors including title sponsors Coca-Cola Zimbabwe through their Bonaqua water brand, African Sun, CFAO Motors, Cimas, Rooney’s, EcoCash and Simbisa Brands, who also came on board for this year’s edition.
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