PANJIM: Ironman Pablo Erat of Switzerland won the Goa Triathlon organized by Goa Adventures for the second time in a row in the individual category, clocking a time of 02.05.09 hours, at Bambolim beach, on Sunday.
For Pablo the win was more significant this year as his wife Lucia Erat, who clocked a time of 2.19.11 hrs, bagged the second place. She became the first woman winner.
Enaut Gonzalez Ruiz of Spain claimed the third spot with a time of 2.21.42.
The swimmers covered a distance of 1.5km off the Bambolim coast, after which they cycled for 40km, doing a total of seven loops of the Taleigao plateau which was followed by a 10km run back to the beach.
In the team event, winner was Akshay Fulambarkar (swimming), Raghunath Mali (cycling) and Amit Kadam (running) from Pune clocking 2.08.54.
The event held in two categories had an overwhelming response with around 250 participants competing for glory, along with 40 foreign participants and 30 participants in the women’s category.
The event was flagged off at 7 a.m. by chief guest Rear Admiral Balvinder Parhar the Flag Officer Goa Area and Naval Aviation.
The event had contestants from various India and international athletes from USA and South America and was electronically timed using RFID chips.
Akshay Fulambarkar topped the team event strongly supporting his team in swimming along with Raghunath Mali (cycling) and Amit Kadam (running) finishing with a time of 2.08.54.
Marushka de Oliveira (swimming), Fredsan Marshall (cycling) and Francisco Clemente (running) from Goa emerged clocking 2.11.09 while Viraj Pardeshi (swimming), Sushil Dhende (cycling) and Dashrath Mengal (running) bagged the third spot with a time of 2.12.04.
Samreth Singh of Goa clinched the Best Finisher award.
This is the second successful Triathlon held in Goa and is also the biggest Triathlon in India to feature open water sea swim. A total prize money of Rs 1, 99,000 sponsored by GTDC was handed out to the winners by Fr Savio from Caritas Goa.
A large part of the event proceeds will be donated to Caritas Goa, a well known charity for its home for children living with HIV in Tivim.
