Lionman Triathlon challenges athletes

With a host of fans and sponsors cheering them on, not to mention four thousand dollars in prizes as incentive, this weekend’s Lionman Triathlon promises to be both exciting and gruelling. News Five’s Janelle Chanona has a preview.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting
Since 1999, the Lionman Triathlon has been a highlight on the Belizean sports calendar. An event of endurance, competitors must brave the salt of the Caribbean Sea, the blazing heat of asphalt as they run and ride…and each other before crossing the finish line into an elite class of athletes.

This year organisers have stepped up the competition. In addition to the twenty-four point eight mile ride and six point two three mile run, the swim is now point nine miles long.

Leila Peyrefitte, Organizer, Lionman Triathlon
“The committee has been invited to represent Belize in the Pan American Games in December and we are planning to send participants this year. It’s not one hundred percent sure, we are not confirmed as yet what we are going to do, but we are trying to get at least five participants to go and represent Belize in Guatemala.”

Earlier this year, the competition was blown out of the water in a special relay event after team Toledo pulled off a swim that left the other participants in the dust.

Leila Peyrefitte
“The swimming is the hardest thing. Belize people tend to ‘fraid for the water a little bit, I don’t know why. And since we increase the swim, that has a lot of people sceptical about going in, but this year I must say that we have really tried to make it a little bit more easier. We have buoys along the way and we have a rope that’s going the entire distance. So the buoys will be in between each post, each turning point, we’ll have some big orange buoys, the rope will be there and we’ll have jet skis and boats that will be out there for safety reasons.”

Other safety measures include a team from BERT on standby at the transition area on Sandlighters Promenade and service tables along the route.

Current category champions are: Kenroy Gladden in the Elite division, Rafael Choto for the Juniors, Jim Scott took top honours in the Masters, and Marinette Flowers is Queen of the female competitors.

Leila Peyrefitte
“It will be a fun day for everybody. We’ll have music, a bar, sandwiches, so it should be a good event.”