Lombok awaits international triathlon

Selaparang Airport on the resort island of Lombok in West Nusa Tenggara, looked unusually hectic this weekend as it welcomed a score of tourists who mostly carried big boxes of luggage.

Those tourists were not ordinary vacationers. They have come to Bali's sister island to compete in the country's last triathlon event of the year, the 2008 Emaar Lombok International Triathlon.

More than 300 local triathletes and around 120 foreign triathletes are expected to take part in the annual race comprising three classic sports: 1.8 kilometers swimming, 55 kilometers cycling and 12 kilometers running at Senggigi Beach on Sunday.

"We wish success to the second round of the event even though we saw several cancellations recently," Nathalie Marquet of the event organizers, Tribob.com, told The Jakarta Post on Saturday.

She alluded to cancellations partly due to fears among tourists of possible retaliatory attacks against the plans to execute the Bali I bombing trio.

"Compared to the Bintan triathlon in which more than 1,500 people participated, this Lombok triathlon is smaller. We've just begun the race last year starting from scratch. But, it has big potential to become one of premier triathlon events in the near future," she added.

A pristine beach and nice scenery along the running track are among the attractions of the event.

"This triathlon is the smallest, but I think this is also the toughest, especially the running track, which is quite steep," said Mark Clay, an expatriate, who works for a foreign company in Jakarta.

The triathletes will take two laps of 900 meters in the first swimming stage before taking on the 55-kilometer cycling course which includes a six-kilometer ascent of Mount Pusuk and a ride through the lush Monkey Forest. The last 12-kilometer running stage zipping through the hilly coastal road will provide sea views to the exhausted athletes.

The organizers reversed the route from the initial 2007 track in order to raise the challenge by placing the hardest part at the end of the race.

"Anyway, it is fun race. I also joined last year's race," the Englishman Clay told the Post.

The organizers said in a statement that 82 percent of the Lombok triathletes are professionals, managers, executives and entrepreneurs.

"Like what happened last year, there are some companies who field their teams to join the triathlon as a team event -- similar to a relay event," Marquet told the Post.

"Perhaps, they found that this event is beneficial to help build solid teams to achieve higher goals in their companies," she added.

However, she said the winning team will receive different prizes from the regular triathlon winners since they compete as teams and not as individual triathletes.

Marquet added that the sport has also been growing fast in the Asian region, with available figures showing that more people were joining triathlon competitions.

In the 2008 Lombok contest, Juie Shetye, 22, from Mumbai, India will be the youngest in the list, while evergreen Patsy Yap, 65, of Malaysia will be the oldest contender. The 2007 Lombok triathlon runner-up Sebastien Calle also returns to the competition with renewed vigor to try to win the first place.

Sumber : www.thejakartapost.com