Triathlon Cup Troutbeck on Saturday

Fungai Muderere

THE 2023 Bonaqua Africa Triathlon Cup Troutbeck will take place on Saturday in Nyanga with a number of international athletes expected to take part in the race.

As published by World Triathlon on their website participants will include a total of 16 Elite Men and 15 Elite Women from 18 countries.

Athletes will be travelling from a number of European countries that include Mexico, Chile, Guam, Japan and Bermuda.

The 2023 edition, the 15th so far, will also see the return of two-time Troutbeck Elite Men’s gold medalist Ayan Beisenbayev from Kazakhstan who will be hoping for a hat-trick of victories at this tough event.

Other returning athletes to Troutbeck include Dylan Nortje and Shaun Wolfaardt from South Africa. Wolfaardt won the 2022 Troutbeck Africa Triathlon Junior Cup and has now moved up to Under 23 level.

Also making a comeback will be Badr Siwane of Morocco, Martin Demuth from Austria, Michal Oliwa from Poland, Meirlan Iskakov from Kazakhstan and Laurent L’Entete from Mauritius.

Elite Women returnees are Shanae Williams who was the runner-up in 2022, Bridget Theunissen and Jamie-Sue Vermaas all from South Africa. Athletes from other African nations also include Togo, Mauritius and Mozambique.

It was revealed that for the Africa Triathlon Junior Cup Troutbeck, over 13 Junior Elite athletes have been registered.

Also to be added are the Zimbabwean contingent of Anje Van As, Matipa Mawere, George Ascott, Nicole Madya, Duwan Botha and the Mthethwa twins, Mandlenkosi and Musawenkosi.

Junior athlete representation from South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe will make up the Junior Elite field.

As of Monday, 32 athletes, both men and women from across the world, had registered for the continental event that will run concurrently with the Junior Africa Cup.

For the local athletes there is a full schedule of supporting events that will offer participants a variety of events related to swimming, biking and running formats, plus the added spectacle of their families and supporters being able to watch the Elite and Junior athletes compete at this high level of international triathlon competition.

Course familiarisation will be done on Friday, starting with the cycle course at 9am, then swim at 10am with the second swim acclimatisation set for 2pm.

According to the pre-race event schedule, visiting international athletes were expected to arrive at the Robert Mugabe International Airport on Thursday before embarking on the road trip to Nyanga.

Simbisa Brands Limited, a fast-food restaurant operator, was recently included in the list of events’ 2023 sponsor group.

Simbisa Brands now backs the annual sporting occasion alongside Coca Cola, Schweppes, Cimas i-Go, CFAO Motor Group, Ecocash and Rooneys.