Triathlon team raring to go
THE Triathlon Zimbabwe youth team to compete in the South African Championships this week is raring to go with most of the athletes content with their preparedness.
The South African Youth Championships are set for February 13 at Maselspoort.
Triathlon Zimbabwe are fielding nine athletes in the youth (Under-13 and Under15) event.
They also have five juniors that will compete in the Under-19 Junior Africa Cup event that will be held on the same day as the Youth Event.
They had their final preparatory race yesterday at Mount Pleasant Pool. For the juniors it was also their fifth selection race for the South African Junior Championships that will be held in March.
Callum Smith and Zachary Summers, who both made the youth Under-15 Boys team, said they are excited to be part of the tour.
Smith is looking forward to taking part in the event.
“It’s been a tough journey. I have had to put in a lot of work, lot of hours in a day, hard training, putting a 110 percent effort all the time.
“I feel really excited that I have been chosen to go to the South African Championships and compete there and it’s going to be my first time going there for my first international race. So I am really excited.
“Today (yesterday) I felt really good. I worked really hard on my running today. I achieved my goal, I beat my time by a few seconds that I got in the last competition. But I felt really good today and I feel ready to go to the South African Championships.
“I feel like I got to have a better understanding of how triathlon works in different countries and how it works internationally,” said Smith.
The event is serving as a qualifier for the African Championships and Summers is hoping to make the grade for the continental showpiece.
“At first it was quite stressful, like before every race I was quite stressed to keep my time and qualify but afterwards I felt really good.
“It’s been good and hard training like four times a week. I wanted to beat my time and I did do that today. I think I am ready.
“It’s my first time. I am not sure what to expect. I just hope the weather is good. I want to try and qualify for the African Championships,” said Summers.
Going into yesterday’s race, the athletes took a cautious approach to avoid injuries with a few days to go before they leave for South Africa.
They will be led by national coach, Pamela Fulton.
“So today the majority of them had good races, there is one with a little bit of a niggle on his knee which I am bit concerned about. But we will see tomorrow how he is. Everyone else had fantastic races.
“I briefed the majority of them to push the swim as hard as they can, go a little bit easy on the bike just for safety purposes, we didn’t want some crashes at the last minute and then push the run as to how they are feeling, obviously next week is the most important event.
“And I spoke to most of the athletes when they crossed the finish line and all of them seemed happy with their performance. So I am excited and as I have said before the majority of these athletes have never raced in South Africa before, never raced against these South African kids,” said Fulton.
However, she is confident the team will deliver the goods and also get the experience of competing at such a level.
Youth Team Under-13 Girls
Chloe Steenkamp (Peterhouse Girls School) Under-15 Girls
Anje van As (Chisipite Senior School), Nicole Madya (Chisipite Senior School), Tayleigh Taylor (Peterhouse Girls School), Chloe Fuller (Hellenic Academy) Under-15 Boys
Rohnan Nicholson (St John’s College), Callum Smith (St John’s College), Zachary Summers (St John’s College), Carlton Chapungu (Peterhouse Boys School).
Juniors
George Ascott, Duwan Botha, Mandlenkosi Mthethwa, Tyler Steenkamp, Jessica Fuller, Emma Lidsba.