TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Organizers hope for sunny day at triathlon
After a series of evening showers, triathlon competition organizers at the inaugural Asian Beach Games hope the sun shines during the race Sunday because a drenched track along Mertasari Beach would spoil the event
Change Size
After a series of evening showers, triathlon competition organizers at the inaugural Asian Beach Games hope the sun shines during the race Sunday because a drenched track along Mertasari Beach would spoil the event.
A drenched track might prevent the 52 athletes from 20 countries competing in the event from performing their best, competition manager Mark Sungkar told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.
"Rainwater deluged some parts of the track at Mertasari but we have settled the problem. Hopefully, there will be no more heavy rains. If it rains, then we don't know what else to do,"Mark said, adding that the organizers would put the final touches to the facilities required for the competition.
Except for a Bangladesh athlete who has pulled out due to injury, the continent's best triathletes will compete, he said.
The host's athletes will challenge Asia's top athletes, Mark, who is also the Indonesia team manager, said "Japan, Hong Kong and Macau are the best nations in the men's division of the triathlon, while the Philippines, Malaysia and Uzbekistan or Kazakhstan are good at the sport in the women's category."
Indonesia's preparations for the competition included training under well-known coach Eugene Lee from Singapore, for about two months.
"Of course we have high expectations for the event."
Sprinter Johan Johari and triathlon ace Muhammad Kadri will represent Indonesia in therace. Johan headed to the Games having finished eighth at a recent Asian triathlon competition in Taiwan, making him the fastest triathlete in Southeast Asia.
Mark said he was confident that Johan could win a medal, due to his showing in Taiwan.
Triathletes from China, Iraq, Jordan, South Korea, Mongolia, Oman, Singapore, Syria, Thailand, Taiwan and India will also race Sunday.
Unlike medalists in other sports, triathlon winners will receive their medals at Nusa Dua Amphitheater cultural site.
Triathlon combines swimming, cycling and running, three sports which have been part of the Olympics since the first Olympic Games in 1896.
The first Asian Triathlon Championship was held in Japan in 1992. The sport did not make its Asian games debut as a medal event until 2006.
In most triathlons, the level of training each athlete has undergone determines the winner, but the very last seconds of the race may be crucial, Mark said.
At the finish line athletes experience mixed emotionsis felt by athletes whose grueling training has paid off, while for others there is relief because the exhausting race has come to an end, he added.
