An enthusiastic group, who had no experience in staging triathlons got together to stage a fine show at the recently concluded Ironman competition. The group consisting of Prasanna Kannangara, Shanaka Amarasinghe, Parveen Herath, Shannon Jacobs, Sabina Omar and Niyaz Aboobucker trained together and competed at different age categories with courage to swim 1.5 kilometres, cycle 40 kilometres and then do a marathon of 10 kilometres to complete the different course.
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| The group with their finishers’ medals. |
They took part in the 51-50 Triathlon, an Olympic standard event held concurrently with the Ironman competition where professionals compete in a bigger course. The group was trained by Mike Anthoniasz who is also the swimming coach at the Sinhalese Sports Club, for weeks while Thanuja Fernando, Chethiya Wijeratne and Sujith Bandulahewa too joined them in preparation for the big event.
“This competition is popular worldwide though it was a first time experience for many in Sri Lanka.
The main event was the Ironman which is an overall 70.3 kilometres event while the 5150 Triathlon covers 51.5 kilometres. It is the same distance covered at Olympics too. There was a tremendous outlay of athletes from all over the world for the 5150 and out from over 100 athletes there were about 50 Sri Lankans for the event. Out of that, half were from the Armed Forces. In our group there were six competitors who competed in different age categories. And happy to say all faired well,” said Anthoniasz.
In the 5150 Triathlon, where over 100 competitors from both genders belonging to all age categories took off for the event with a 1.5 kilometres swim, the best were experienced international campaigners while Sahan Rupasinghe who won the age category of 18-24 finished overall fourth. The best ten local athletes were seen among top finishers.
From Anthoniasz’s group of individual competitors, Niyaz Aboobucker, the only one with some experience after competing in Singapore, finished 26th overall and third in his age category of Males 40-44. Thanuja Fernando who apparently trained with the group but represented Navy was placed second in her age group, the Female 25-29 and completed 46th overall. Young Shannon Jacob was the cynosure of all eyes as she braved a hamstring on her right leg to finish 50th overall. In her age category which was Female 18-24 Jacob emerged the winner.
Sabina Omar was another impressive athlete competing in the Female 30-34 age category. She was placed third in her age group and was placed 52nd overall. Following Omar in the overall list was the spearhead of the group, Prasanna Kannangara who eventually won the Male 60-64 age category. Brave-hearted Parveen Herat took wrong turns and as a result almost completed the Ironman course but she was quick enough to finish the triathlon 60th overall. She also was placed sixth in the Female 35-39 age category. Shanaka Amarasinghe who competed in the relay category was placed second in his category.
Though the competitors of the 5150 did not receive handsome cash awards as the Ironman competitors the group was highly thrilled to receive finishers’ medal, finishers’ shirt and a plaque in appreciation of their participation and as an encouragement. 59-year-old Kannangara who was overwhelmed with the experience said the group would continue to practice together with future goals.“We didn’t have a name, nor had we sponsors. We just took part because we loved it. All in our group entered the competition voluntarily. We are happy and impressed with our performances on individual basis and as a group.
There were some areas we were really lacking like in cycling. In comparison with other athletes’ cycles, ours’ were not in good shape for competition. It’s really impressive for a starter and now that we have experience, we hope to take part in such competitions very often. What we really need is someone to back us financially,” said Kannangara who also revealed that the group’s next venture will be to compete in the Malaysian Triathlon come June. – NA |
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