Triathlon association to hold AGM

Sikhumbuzo Moyo Senior Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe Triathlon Association (ZTA) holds its annual general meeting in Harare early next month with discussions set to centre on the association’s successes and failures. In a brief post on its official website, the AGM would be held at the Borrowdale Brooke Golf Club on July 5. The AGM is likely to focus on the association’s financial position as well as the performance of a six-member Zimbabwe triathlon team that finished in the top six at the African Triathlon Union (ATU) Triathlon African Championship held in Egypt this year.

It is also set to deliberate on funding for Zimbabwe’s two triathletes that qualified for the 2015 ITU World Triathlon Grand Final and World Championships to be held in Chicago, United States from September 15-19.

More than 150 competitors from around the world will compete in the event.

With the sport virtually non-existent in the southern region of the country, ZTA president Rick Fulton and his committee would be under pressure to come up with strategies of reviving the sport, particularly in Bulawayo and surrounding areas.

In 2013, the association introduced the sport to schools with Lomagundi College headmaster Mirius Erlank being elected the inaugural head in charge of triathlon, but the move does not seem to have succeeded in popularising the sport in this part of the country.

Triathlon is, however, popular in the northern half of the country with more than 400 active triathletes.

Triathlon is a multiple-stage competition involving the completion of three continuous and sequential endurance disciplines.

While many variations of the sport exist, triathlon, in its most popular form, involves swimming, cycling, and running in immediate succession over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall course completion time, including timed “transitions” between the individual swim, cycle and run components.

Triathlon races vary in distance. According to the Internation Triathlon Union, and US Triathlon, the main international race distances are: Sprint distance, which has a 750-metre swim, 20KM cycling, 5KM run; Intermediate (or standard) distance, commonly referred to as “Olympic distance” which has 1.5KM swim, 40KM biking, 10KM run; Long course, 1.9KM swim, 90KM cycling and 21.1KM run.

There is also the half ironman and the ultra distance that covers a 3.9KM swim, 180KM cycling and a full marathon 42.2KM run.