Online Reporter
Ellina Mhlanga-Zimpapers Sports Hub
TRIATHLON Zimbabwe president Ross O’Donoghue is upbeat about the sport’s direction after a busy and largely productive season, with the school series emerging as one of the biggest positives.
The 2025-2026 programme has wrapped up, with athletes now on a short break before preparations begin for the next campaign in the coming months. For O’Donoghue, the off-season has offered a moment to take stock.
At the centre of that reflection is the growth of the school series, now in its third season, which the association sees as key to widening its talent base.
“I think our school series and the growth in our school series for triathlon is a high.
“The bigger your base of athletes, the better your top-end performers are going to be ultimately.
“We are very proud as a board of what we are achieving with the school series,” said O’Donoghue.
The initiative has largely focused on junior schools, but plans are already in motion to bring senior schools on board next season.
O’Donoghue said the next step is turning that participation into a clear pathway. “One of the things we are going to work on really hard is to pull kids from that school series into triathlon and help to pave a pathway for them, for triathlon as a sport.
“We are not a mainstream sport, so we struggle against the schools in terms of getting kids to participate.
“But we are working really hard to try and get our numbers up because as I said, the more numbers you have, the better athletes you find.”
On the performance side, the season also pointed to a promising crop of young athletes beginning to step up.
Zander Botha and Rachel O’Donoghue, in their first year as juniors after graduating from youth level, made an immediate impact with podium finishes at events that included the World Triathlon Development Regional Cup in Kenya, Troutbeck in Nyanga and competitions in South Africa.
Their progress has not gone unnoticed.
Botha has been nominated for the Junior Sportsman and Junior Sportsperson of the Year at the Annual National Sports Awards (ANSA) 2025, while O’Donoghue is in the running for Junior Sportswoman of the Year.
O’Donoghue believes the results are no accident.
“We had an unbelievable season. Extremely busy, lots of tours. We had tours to Egypt, to Kenya, to Benoni, to Mossel Bay, and just incredible results.
“Far exceeding our expectations from some of our athletes.
“I don’t know if it’s a new wave of talent, you know . . . from the national coach, from our coaching base, World Triathlon really assist us with all of our technical officials and our accredited coaches.
“And I think just constantly working at those bases, targeting talented children, nurturing them, helping them through, I think it’s not a sudden wave, I think it’s a culmination of hard work.
“But we have got great talent coming through, and we don’t want to focus entirely on that talent coming through.
“We want to make sure we nurture the next lot of talent to come through, so we don’t want waves, we want consistency.
“We have got a lot of talent which we have identified in the school series, and it’s just now to get those kids to not commit entirely, but just commit to a triathlon process, and we can really assist them through our coaching programmes.
“We have got some amazing coaches and people willing to help young kids come through, and we hope to not have waves in the future, but rather just a consistent flow of talent moving through.” The association is also working with the Sports Commission to push the sport beyond Harare, part of a broader plan to grow numbers and make triathlon more visible across the country.
