Biathlon & Triathlon 2008

The first, symbolic, event has taken place on our island. It was a sports event, the first Duathlon & Triathlon.

48 hours after the start signal, the event organizers were relieved. They had won the bet and a second sport event will take place next year.

For the occasion, all the activists and daily militants for a different Koh – PhaNgan, where sport and culture has a place, were reunited for the event.

To my surprise, many local Thais came to join the event around the Triathlon. During these days I’ve seen them smiling, having fun, and the fact that they were there, (some came from far) made me realize that that wasn’t something that they would do in their culture.

At the beginning, Phangan-guide.com wasn’t duly authorized for participation. But we have been adopted, and were able to take photographs for one of the organizations, which hereby I would like to thanks again.

Saturday, the 15th of March, was the date of the Duathlon with 54 participants. The start signal was given at 08:00 AM, and the best finished the course two hours and fifteen minutes later.

The winner was Mr. Abdullah Shahron from Malaysia, followed by two Thais and a Brazilian. We will get back on them a bit further in this article.

 Better take a look at the photographs instead the weight of words.

Did you know that in this course, two of the participants where French?

A French woman called Elodie, and a Frenchman called Sylvain, (his time was 03H34 and ended 44th.

Both of them have finished the race, Elodie wasn’t really prepared for this kind of course.

Sunday the 16th of March was the Triathlon, many of the participants from Saturday had an inscription for this race as well.

Like the day before, the weather was hot, and the participants would have agreed that the swimming part of 1.5 km would have been at the end of the race. Unluckily, the start signal for the swimming part was given at 07:30 AM near the port of Thong Sala.

From the beginning on, it was a Brazilian, which took the head in the race, and never abandoned. The same person finished yesterday at the forth place.

Respect for Mr. Stephane Vinicus, (from Bangkok).

Today, he finished the race in 2 hours and 20 minutes, (detail of the three specialties: Swimming, 1.5 km – 21 min. and 51 sec., 40 km bicycling – 1 hour 16 min. and 16 sec., 10 km running – 42 min. and 8 sec.).

 The second place was for a Malaysian, 2 hours 23 min. and 15 sec. And the third place, again a Malaysian, (the number one from the day before), 2 hours 26 min. and 31 sec.

The forth to the ninth place had been taken by Thais only.

A great honor for the Thai females in this race, they have beaten quit some of the male competitors.

 There were also a few young participants, which had a special category. They were courageous.

For this Triathlon, only one French. Bravo to Patrice, which came from Bangkok. Even if he said that he wasn’t satisfied by his score, he did great.

For a first time, it was great, maybe in the future it would be nice if there were more participants and public, and shut the track for other vehicles.

A great thanks to Mr. Stephane Vinicus, the winner, from Brasilia, of this Triathlon for his kindness and the time he took for Phangan-guide.com