Qatar Triathlon Federation launches its National Triathlon Series 2018/2019 with Katara Triathlon on Friday, November 9, 2018

The inaugural Katara Triathlon was organised by the Qatar Triathlon Federation in conjunction with MAD Triathlon and support from Qatar Olympic Committee. It took place at the Katara Cultural Village Beach on Friday 9th of November with transition opening at 5am and the race getting underway at 6:45am.

The event hosted 240 participants including 40 Qatari nationals. It was a lively and entertaining race for spectators and fans who throng to this prestigious venue.

The event catered all ages of triathletes, wanting to stretch themselves on the main event. This so-called “Sprint distance” is hardly a sprint as it features 750m of swimming, 20km of cycling and 5km run but for the best endurance athletes, it feels fast.

The strongest categories of the day; Men’s and Women’s Open categories were also the most exciting. Men’s event was won in the last kilometre of the race when British Athlete Ethan Bennett (Tri Club Doha) 1h04m21s, overtook Irishman Bernard McCullagh and Spaniard Aday Alvarez Diez de Ulzurrun. In Women category, the event was dominated by Spanish Isora Sosa Caballero in front of South African Toni Snoxell and Italian Daniela Sposi (both Tri Club Doha).

Veteran men race was won by Chilean Francisco Gutierrez and women’s by Pia Sundstedt who was fastest among all women athletes.

Ebrahim Alromaihi won among the Qataris and also managed fourth place in open category. Second and third place was won by Saad Almejali and Mubarak Alajji (all Qtri). Qatari Veteran was dominated by Nasser Almohannadi in front of Ali Alnajdi and Fahad Al-Groon (all Qtri).

Team Relay race was the fastest, since each of the three teammates are doing one leg of the race only. Al Jassra team (Peter North / Lee Jones / Barry Stoddart) blew the field by time of 1h02m15s.

All results of the event (including kids) can be found on https://qtriseries.com/

Dr. Nasser Al Mohannadi, Triathlon director at Qatar Triathlon Federation said, “We are very happy to celebrate the start of Qatar National Triathlon Series in lovely location for Triathlon in Katara Cultural Village. As board member of Cycling and Triathlon Federation and founding president of QTRI, i would like to thank Qatar Olympic Committee for support and Katara for hosting the event, along with al the other sponsors and partners, who contributed making the event a success for all. Triathlon is the fastest growing sport in the world and locally.”

November is a Men’s health awareness month. Qatar Cancer Society, partnered with Katara Triathlon to increase awareness by encouraging men to get involved. “Movember” aims to increase early cancer detection, diagnosis and effective treatments, and ultimately reduce the number of preventable deaths.

Katara Triathlon is the first of five triathlon events which count towards the Qatar National Triathlon Series in the season 2018/2019. The League will include also The Al Ghariya Triathlon, Doha Triathlon, Lusail Triathlon and Pearl Triathlon for which the details will be released later on.

Dr Mohammed Al Kuwari, President of Qatar Cycling and Triathlon Federation: “We are excited and looking forward to the beginning of a new chapter in Federation’s long-term plan, which includes having our own Triathlon Series and promoting the sport we govern. We are thankful to all parties involved for making this event possible.”

The Katara Triathlon event was supported by Qatar Olympic Committee, Ashghal, QNB, Burrda Sport, Royal Air Maroc, St Regis Doha, GMC, Rassen Sport and Carbon Wheels.

For further information on Katara Triathlon go to the Facebook page of Qatar Triathlon Federation or web page of the Qatar National Triathlon Series: https://qtriseries.com/