The stretch from Miramar to Ribandar on Sunday morning will be a sight to behold as thousands of athletes will be participating in one of the most prestigious triathlons in the world, Ironman 70.3. Since the first edition of the competition in Goa in 2019, the number of Goan participants has doubled up.
Pramod Divgi, a project executive from Porvorim will be competing in the full course. He has participated in several events since Covid in Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka. However, his eye is on the prize for the Ironman 70.3. “I am too excited for this second edition of the Ironman 70.3 in Goa. The whole world is travelling to Goa to get acclimatised and learn the routes and we have been doing it for months now with coach Agnelo D’Sa. He has been giving us the plan and we had over 12-13 hours of training per week,” says Pramod.
Akash Agarwadekar, a 24-year-old lifesaver from Drishti Marine, works on Calangute beach in Goa. He has won many medals at interstate and local swimathons, marathons and races. Passionate about sports and athletics, he was training for the last edition of Ironman in 2019. After rigorous training, he had set his mind of completing the course. Unfortunately, a week before the race, he met with an accident when a car bumped him, when he was practicing on his cycle. He had to undergo surgery and couldn’t take part in the triathlon. This year, he is back with more confidence and his training will surely help him cross the finish line.
Damodar Verlekar, from Curca, Bambolim, currently working at Collectorate of North Goa District is posted as Talathi in Bardez. At the age of 45 years, his health and fitness training is his priortiy, which is equally supported by his wife. Even after being operated for left knee injury, he is all set to take on the Ironman challenge. After office hours and off duty days, he is either cycling for 30 odd kilometres or running for 20 kilometres approximately from the Jack Sequeira road to Bambolim and back with a swim schedule at Bambolim beach, all three in a day at several times. Besides participation, in various marathon events including Tata Mumbai Marathon, he has bagged many awards including the SR Title in Endurance Cycling. His passion for Ironman is supported by his endurance coach Digambar Narvekar, who trained him for attaining strength and speed and Indrajeet Kadilkar as swimming coach and special efforts taken by coach Agnelo.
Agnelo D’Sa has been training Goans to participate in different triathlons including the Ironman 70.3 Goa. His youngest athlete is 19 years old and the eldest is 63 years old. “There should be close to 40 Goan participants at the competition, since I have been training around 25 participants from different parts of Goa. Some athletes have been training for the past three years while some started just six months back. The minimum training required for beginners is 24 weeks of training before the triathlon,” says Agnelo, whose wife, Fatima D’Sa will be competing in the full course of the triathlon. She is among the only four Goan women participating in the entire triathlon including Dr Lisa George, Althea Fernandes and Ananya Mukherjee.
Althea Fernandes from Colva, who runs Kleen Kraft Cleaning Service, takes on a new avatar which is on the race track. She has been a marathoner since 2012 and has participated in various marathons in Goa, Maharashtra and Karnataka including the rigorous Tata Mumbai Marathon. She started cycling during the pandemic and later she took to swimming out of curiosity by watching other triathlon athletes practising for the competition. Now, with the routine training of all three disciplines required for the triathlon, she is competing in the full course. Taking a breather of a few days before the competition, she says, “ I am very excited since I have put in a lot of training and it is even more encouraging looking at athletes from different parts of the country and the world coming to Goa. I have been training for over a year and now we are tapering it down as we are concentrating more on nutrition, hydration and relaxing.
With thousands of participants, there are 39 relay teams in the categories of male, female and mixed teams from which 20 are female teams. Nehali Chodnekar, Prutha Chandwani and Shefali Coulekar are members of the Brigade – FitSwaggers. “There was a contest run by Yoska for women athletes who wanted to participate in Ironman 70.3 to promote women in sports. The selected athletes could participate for free in the competition. The groups were decided for the relay team according to our strengths. Since I have been running for marathons, the course will begin with Prutha swimming the distance of .9 kilometres, followed by Shefali cycling 90 kilometres and I completing the course by running 21 kilometres. I have been training for 2-3 hours per week and now the hours have reduced as I didn’t want to injure my leg before the triathlon. The ankle strap is the most important element for the relay course,” says Nehali Chodenkar, a mother of a three year son, with whom she even participated in a marathon earlier.
Clarissa Costa is excited to participate in the triathlon, which she would have missed if she was not part of the women’s relay team. “I am yet to meet the two other participants in my team who are from Bangalore and Delhi. I submitted my profile as an athlete to the page on Instagram and I was grouped with these two female athletes by Yoska. If there was no relay category, I would not be able to participate in the entire triathlon and I would have missed this opportunity,” says Clarissa from Caranzalem, a homemaker and mother of two sons, Keith and Kevin.
