One of the sporting highlights of the year, the Cayman Islands Triathlon, is set to take place on Sunday.
The event features two distances, a Sprint Distance which consists of a 750 metres swim, a 20 kilometre bike and a 5k run, and an Olympic distance event that doubles those distances to a 1500m swim, a 40k bike and a 10k run.
The start for both events will be at 6.45am from Public Beach on West Bay Road, with participants completing all three events on their own, or taking part as members of a team. There will also be a 10k run, starting at 8am for those who are not keen on swimming or cycling as part of their training regime.
As always, the favourites are keeping a close eye on one another. However, the podium this year could well see a couple of new faces step up.
The race favourite in the men’s division has to be defending champion Marius Acker, who is a very good all round competitor.
Acker, who is primarily known as a runner, is also the defending champion in the Cayman Islands half-marathon.
Combine this with a very good swim, as well as good strength on the bike, and the 39-year-old South African will be very tough to beat on Sunday.
However, that does not mean there will be a shortage of competitors trying to unseat him.
Johan Heath has been one of the top swimmers in local open water events, and has beaten Acker in a number of swims recently, so he is expected to exit the water with a lead over Acker.
Heath has also improved his cycling ability greatly over the last year, finishing on the podium in a number of time trails recently, which seems to indicate that he should be able to extend his lead over Acker on the bike.
However, Heath admits that the run is his weakness, which was aggravated by a recent injury that kept him from running.
“I have struggled with plantar fasciitis in my feet over the last couple of weeks which has resulted in my run training being kept to a minimum, so I definitely feel that I can challenge up to the end of the bike leg. I will give the run a solid go and run with whatever I have left in the tank,” said Heath.
Acker will definitely be able to make up time on Heath during the run.
They question is just whether Heath can start the run with a big enough lead to keep Acker from hunting him down. However, many have tried similar tactics and thus far none of them has succeeded.
Ray Welds could well be another danger man, as he managed to finish ahead of Heath in an Ironman 70.3 race at the end of September and packs a strong run as well.
The event will also be the farewell race for Jasper Mikkelsen, one of the most respected triathletes on Island. Mikkelsen, who raced in the Ironman and Ironman 70.3 world championships in 2009, suffered a knee injury that has kept him out of training recently, so he has relatively muted expectations.
“Up until two weeks ago I didn’t even think I would be doing the tri. Six weeks ago I fell and injured my knee. The doctor’s verdict was 10 to 12 weeks off running. Luckily I’ve managed to prove him wrong and have been able to start running again a week ago,” said Mikkelsen.
However, he is still hopeful of a top five finish, depending on how his fitness holds up.
“The competition is tough and you need to put in the training hours to make the podium. That said, I’m hoping there is a bit of muscle memory from earlier in the year where I was probably in the best shape I have ever been.”
Other competitors to watch will be the likes of Tom Stephens and Paul Tanguy, who could certainly challenge for a top five finish.
Johann Prinsloo has also been performing well on the bike recently and is also likely to make an appearance near the top of the field.
The women’s division should also see some interesting battles. Recent Ironman 70.3 finishers Pam Travers and Caroline Cahill are likely to feature, as could Justine Plenkiewicz.
Of the two top contenders, Travers has the far superior swim, but Cahill is the stronger runner, and has defeated Travers in recent cycling events as well.
However, Travers will have the motivation of knowing that Cahill is chasing her down, which could well push her to stay ahead of her closest competitor.
As for the weather conditions on the day, all the athletes expect it to be windy. However, Acker does not believe this will have a major impact on the fight for the podium.
“The race against the wind is one that you win in your mind, if you managed to do that before the race, the wind does not matter. We train in the same wind and over the last couple of years the wind always showed up on race day.”
However, Heath thinks the weather may well help some and hinder others. “If there is chop on the water and windy out on the bike course, I believe that these conditions should favour stronger swimmers and bikers over pure runners.”
Registration and race number pickup will take place on Saturday at Stingers Restaurant at Comfort Suites from 10am to 2pm, with no race day registration. Athletes who fail to register and pick up their race packets on Saturday will not be allowed to start on Sunday morning.
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