World Beach games – Qatar’s aquathletes step up
This past Monday, Abdulla BoShaheen Al-Kaabi and Fahad Al-Mohammedcompeted against the world at the World Beach Games Aquathlon, held herein Qatar at the Katara Cultural Village.
The pair were late selections but both athletes managed to get in some specific training and preparation before race day.
The event, which was 2.5 Km run, 750m ocean swim then another 2.5 Kmrun, was fast and furious in tough conditions where the sea temperaturescraped under the ITU limit and, out of the water, high humidityprematurely ended the race for a few who got acclimatisation, heatcoping strategy or pacing wrong. Mindful of representing Qatar for thefirst time on a stage this big, both BoShaheen and Fahad attempted tokeep touch with the other athletes on the first run, outpacing theirrace-plan, then struggling at the start of the swim and final run.BoShaeen was the quicker of the two over the first run but was overtakenby Fahad in the swim but ultimately managed to re-pass Fahad before thefinish.
Both athletes left everything out on the course, finishing in 25thand 26th positions in a thirty strong field. While the results were notwhat the athletes wanted, nor do they reflect what they are capable ofachieving, far more important is the experience they gained of racing atthis level and in a competition of this stature. The main results forthem are the lasting impressions which, for sure, will change theirtraining perspective and work ethic for the future.
Qatar National Triathlon Team’s thanks go out to Qatar OlympicCommittee for hosting another world-class event, and Qatar TriathlonFederation with the ITU, for doing all the groundwork on this superblywell organized race.
Looking forwards, the athletes will be doing a mix of localtriathlons in the Qatar Triathlon Race Series combined with a step up indistance at some of our regional Ironman events.
Photo credit for action shots: Ben Lumley/Triathlon.org. All rights reserved
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