Domestic season opens for Qatar’s best

While the international calendar for the Qatar National Team is nowclear, the domestic season is just starting. With more races than ever,plus good competition against the best of the expat community, theexpectation and opportunity exists for our top triathletes to raisetheir level and aim to be more competitive – not with just one another,but against the rest of the world!

The opening event of the 2019-20 Qatar Triathlon Series had the team return to the beautiful Katara Cultural Village, hot on the heels of the recent World Beach Games aquathlons. A depleted squad was in attendance, with many either out of the country or undergoing mandatory military training.

Over the fast sprint distance event (750m swim, 19km bike, 5.2kmrun), former elite national champion, Ebrahim Al Romaihi competed withthe top men overall. Getting back to his old form from last year afteralmost ten months of injuries and illness. A few minutes behind him itwas a tight race for 2nd Qatari, with Mubarak Al Ajji and Abdulla AlKaabi doing the majority of the race shoulder to shoulder. Both, who aremore focused on long distance, managed strong performances and made uplots of ground in their overall placing over the bike and run.

Not far behind, Abdulrahman Al Jaber, who had a strong swim and bikecombo, struggled to hold form on the run and found himself off theQatari podium by just less than one minute.

• Ebrahim Al Romaihi 1:05:31 – 3rd Overall
• Abdulla Al Kaabi 1:10:42 – 14th Overall
• Mubarak Al Ajji 1:10:48 – 15th Overall
• Abdulrahman Al Jaber 1:11:44 – 18th Overall

All in all, the team showed strong performances with encouragingsigns of improvement. With the cooler weather now here, lots of workstill to be done and the Qatar Triathlon Federation providing opportunitiesfor home-grown talent to develop experience locally, we are keeping oneeye on the year ahead.

• Results