The event at Sirinath National Park attracted over 500 athletes to contest the olympic race (10-kilometre run, 40-km bike, 1,500-metre swim), sprint race (5km run, 21km bike, 750m swim) and duathlon (15km run, 40km bike, 1,500m swim).
Athletes from Jurgen Zack’s Phuket-based Z-Coaching triathlon traning group fared particularly impressively with several high placed finishers across the three categories, despite heavy rainfall and challenging swimming conditions on Sunday (Sept 10), the main day of competition.
In the men’s olympic triathlon, 17-year-old Thai Tanadol “Peem” Witsarutsin excelled to finish in second place with a time of 2 hours, 4 minutes and 26 seconds, just 1m 37s behind overall winner Abdallah Abushabab of Egypt.
Fellow Z-Coaching athlete Ronald Setiawan finished 4 minutes behind Tanadol in third place with Lam Quang Nhat in fourth, Jaray Jearanai in fifth, Rorie Masson eighth and Aaron Buchan tenth, all of whom train with Zack.
Z-Coaching athletes dominated the women’s olympic event with Australian Dimity-Lee Duke storming home with a time of 2h 9m and 59s, with Inge Prasetyo second on 2h 23 m 4 s and Japan’s Satowa Ota third 26m and 45s behind her in third.
The presence of fellow Z-Coaching athletes in the top ten was strong with Apple Shum in fourth place, Rachel Ireland, in what was her first ever triathlon, in fifth, Sabine Egger in sevent and Mimt Thanaphornphrom in ninth.
Renata Berliana of Z-Coaching won the women’s sprint with an overall time of 1hr 12m 57s, with teammates Chiara Egger in fourth and Jenjira Mountford seventh, in what was her first ever triathlon, while Do’dee Panchalard came third in the men’s sprint.
Anan Suksrisin fiished third in the men’s duathlon while Marina Gorodetskaya secured seventh spot in the women’s race, rounding off a fantastic day for athletes from Z-Coaching Phuket.
The organisers congratulated all athletes taking part for helping create a world-class event that they hope will be repeated many times in future.
Organisers similarly thanked all those that supported the event, including local Phuket residents.