The fourth edition of the Goa Triathlon was definitely
adrenaline pumping as participants knew what they were up against and had to
try their best to make it past the finish line. Organised by Enduro Sports Goa,
the event was held at Bambolim. The Goa Triathlon attracts not just Goans but
athletes from different parts of the country and the world. This year saw 47 participants
from countries such as USA, Japan, Canada, Italy, Switzerland, France, Chile
and Australia. The Super Sprint began at 7:05am, the Individual Olympics Solo began
at 7:20am and the Team Competition at 7:30am.
“The competition is always tough as it is a severe endurance
competition and requires the athletes to be fit and good at running, cycling
and swimming. The Olympic solo required an athlete to swim for 1.5 kilometres
and then cycle for 40 kilometres and finally run for 10 kilometres. For those
who wanted to try it out the first time and measure themselves, they were
advised to attempt the beginners’ competition i.e. the Super Sprint which was one-fourth
of the distance. They had to swim for 400 metres, cycle for 10 kilometres and
run for 2.5 kilometres,” says Joseph Rodrigues, a founding member of Enduro
Sports Goa. Besides the Goa Triathlon, Endure Sports Goa also organises the
Swimathon which will be held on April 9 and 10, 2017 and the Children’s Triathlon,
which is slotted for November this year.
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The team of Enduro Sports Goa consists of Joseph Rodrigues,
a professional karate instructor and cyclist, Elias Patel, a professional
swimming coach and a Radio Jockey on FM Rainbow, Ronal Fernandes, an IT
professional, and Dr Michelle Gouveia, a radiologist. The proceeds from the
triathlon are donated to COOJ.
“Ninety per cent of the participants were pleased with the
location of the swimming leg of the event. Bambolim is more of a cove or a bay
and we were able to closely monitor the tides well in advance to know when it was
safest. The Indian Navy and Drishti Lifesaving Goa helped us by providing a
total of four jet skis and 12 kayaks to safeguard the participants. The entire
competition was electronically timed with RFID (Radio-Frequency IDentification)
chips which included the swim and the time radars were placed at five locations
throughout the race,” says Joseph, about the developments in the competition.
Pablo Erat has been participating since the first edition and
has won every year in the Olympic Solo male category. This year too, he shared
the podium with his wife, Lucia, who won the Olympics Solo female category. “Lucia
and I have started the season with a solid double victory. For me, this year’s
event was particularly exciting because the level of the fastest men had
increased significantly compared to previous years. We had an absolutely fantastic day and I would
like to congratulate my fellow competitors for the hard and fair competition,
which truly forced me to bring out my ‘A’ game. A big thank you goes to Elias
and his team for setting up yet another world-class event. Nothing makes us
happier than to feel the shared joy and passion. Keep it up and see you again
in Goa in 2018,” says Pablo, who reached the finish line just 2.5 minutes
before the Indian Army triathletes, who were also exceptionally good.
The Goan teams at the Olympic Teams also did great this year.
The team of Joao Carlos Elton Estrocio, Serry D’souza and Fredsan Marshall came
third, Marushka Alisha De Oliveira, Francisco Clemente and Vedant Halankar came
fourth, Mangesh Gawas, Shekhar Velip and Terence Moniz came fifth and Sanjay
Yadav, Dipesh Velip and Vinayak Talaulikar came seventh. Vinayak Goankar came
16th at the Olympic Solo competition.
