Compressport triathlon all set

It’s all systems go for the first Compressport Hermosa Triathlon in Zamboanga City on Oct. 13 following the official launch this week of the city’s annual Hermosa Festival, the oldest cultural and religious festival in the country.

More than 200 athletes, mostly from the Zamboanga Peninsula and the rest of talentrich Mindanao, will be competing in the first major triathlon event in the city. With this inaugural swim-bike-run event, Zamboanga is expected to join the list of the country’s top sports tourism destinations.

The event involves a 1.6-km swim off the city’s Paseo del Mar, a 43-km bike ride through the highway and a 12-km run through loops around the city streets to the seaside Cawa Cawa Boulevard, finishing in front of Zamboanga’s iconic City Hall.

It is one of the highlights of the Zamboanga Hermosa Festival, a colorful fiesta honoring the Nuestra Señora La Virgen del Pilar, the city’s patron saint. The month-long festival went full blast last Tuesday with a pageantry of color, music and dances. Also scheduled are several activities like the drum and lyre competition, dance sport competitions, the Hermosa vinta regatta, processions and other religious activities, and sports competitions like an ultra trail run, a marathon to be capped by the Compressport Hermosa Triathlon on Oct. 13.

The title sponsor of the triathlon is Compressport, a line of high-performance compression apparel distributed by Unison Bikes.