Royal Army of Oman dominates the Muscat Paradise Triathlon
MUSCAT: The Royal Army of Oman (RAO) won both the team categories — Sprint and Olympic — while Bahraini athletes dominated the individual competitions in the Muscat Paradise Triathlon organised in Barr Al Jissah on Friday.
The Shangri-La Barr Al Jissah Resort hosted the inaugural Muscat Paradise Triathlon in association with Muscat Triathlon Club and Tri.ME sporting events with the participation of around 144 triathletes from around the world competing in two different categories — Sprint and Olympic, for both individual and team honours.
The Royal Army of Oman claimed first place in both Sprint and Olympic categories for teams, while Jasmine Eden and Abdullah Attya took first places in the individual Sprint and Olympic categories.
First places in the individual Olympic category for women went to Asta Parker of the United Kingdom.
“I was happy to be a part of this great event and part of developing the Omani community to involve itself in more types of sports and activities that help us set Oman as a destination for sports like triathlons and triathletes MUSCAT: Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3 racer Ahmad al Harthy says he is ‘very happy indeed’ with the first official outing of 2017 for the newly rebranded Oman Racing squad, after two excellent days of running at Paul Ricard in France this week during the pre-season Blancpain Endurance Cup test.
Muscat 35-year-old Ahmad, who will once again compete in the Pro-Am class in the globe’s biggest GT endurance racing championship, was joined by team-mate Jonny Adam as the pair put the No 97 Aston Martin through its paces.
Working through a wide variety of set-up changes and key areas of preparation ahead of the start of the new season, the test — on Monday, 13th March, and Tuesday, 14th March — went as smoothly as could have been hoped with both drivers enjoying a lot of very important mileage.
Notably, this week’s collective test alongside more than 50 other Blancpain Endurance Cup entries marked the first ‘official’ appearance of Oman Racing with British squad TF Sport looking after the engineering of the car.
Absolutely elated with the performance from TF Sport’s mechanics, Ahmad is relishing the start of his first season working with Tom Ferrier’s squad and is certainly looking forward to hitting the ground running when the opening round takes place at Monza in Italy next month.
“We have had a really positive couple of days in Paul Ricard and it was good to be back in the car after so long away from the track,” said the Muscat driver, “The Aston Martin feels really good, it’s quick and handling very well as I knew it would, and the team is amazing — the guys at TF Sport have done a fantastic job with the Oman Racing car.
“We worked on a lot of different things, short stints and long stints, and prepared very well for when we’re back at Paul Ricard later in the season. We’ve certainly done a lot of kilometres in the car over the last couple of days and I’m very happy indeed with how everything has gone. We can’t wait for the first round at Monza, we’re all feeling very positive.”
Ahmad, who an Aston Martin Middle East and North Africa ambassador, is being supported during his fifth season in the Blancpain Endurance Cup by high profile commercial partners Oman Ministry of Sports Affairs, Oman Air, National Bank of Oman, Omantel, Barr Al Jissah and Amouage.
Round one the ultracompetitive Blancpain Endurance Cup will take place over the weekend 22nd/23rd April at Monza in Italy. is of BLANCPAIN ENDURANCE CUP CALENDAR Rd1 Monza, Italy – 22/23 April Rd2 Silverstone, UK – 13/14 May Rd3 Paul Ricard, France – 23/24 June Rd4 Spa-Francorchamps, Belgium – 29/30 July Rd5 Barcelona, Spain October – 30 September/1