ZIMBABWE Youth triathletes churned out a mixed bag of medal harvest at the 2021 Triathlon Championships in Sharm El Sheikh in Egypt today, accounting for gold, medal and silver in individual events.
Matipa Mawere scooped gold in the Boys U15 category while compatriot Joshua Jacobs claimed bronze in the same race.
Zimbabwe also picked another gold medal courtesy of Anje Van As in the Girls U15 event, with Emma Lidsba coming home just behind her to a silver medal.
Makanaka Mawere continued with her steady rise to the top as she bagged a bronze medal in the Girls U19 category as Zimbabwe earned yet another podium finish.
Triathlon Zimbabwe head coach Pam Fulton who was honoured earlier in the week in Egypt for the outstanding work she did on the camp leading up to the event, was super chaffed with Team Zimbabwe’s performance.
Fulton’s husband Rick was also honoured on the same night for his work towards the development of triathlon.
“Yes, today was a really exciting race for Zimbabwe, really excited about the medals that we did win,” Fulton told EnterSportNews.
“Fantastic race for Makanaka in the U19 Junior category… the youth really (really) proud of them great to win gold and silver in the U15 girls category and in the U15 boys category fantastic to get a gold and a bronze so very proud coach.”
Meanwhile, medal hopeful Mikayla Colegrave finished in the top 20 but placed outside the podium finish while Andy Kuipers and Matt Denslow crashed on the bike and had a tyre puncture, respectively.
” Unfortunately, Andie Kuipers, who we would have hoped to do well, actually crashed on the bike and never managed to recover. She did finish but never managed to recover but really glad and impressed that she did finish,” she said.
“And with regards to Matt, he was having an outstanding race early this morning in the elite category. He had managed to form up with a big pack and doing well when he unfortunately punctured. But he managed to ride the last lap on a flat tyre and finished the run. So fantastic effort from him but just really disappointing that he did puncture.”
Tomorrow focus switches to the Mixed Team Relay events, and Zimbabwe will be field two strong sides.
” We are now looking forward to tomorrow’s relay event where Zimbabwe will have an A team and a B team,” added Fulton.
” I’m not sure at this moment how many teams will be competing. We have got two or three Africa teams of mixed from all different nations who are unable to make up their own team relay. But at this stage, Zimbabwe has two full teams of just their own athletes.”
