UAE: Dubai Desert Triathlon

November 20 2014

The second Dubai Desert Triathlon will take place December 5 in the Dubai Desert, UAE. Under the patronage of HH Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Makoum, the event will cover 3 disciplines of running (5 km on a desert trail), cycling (50 km on a cycling course), and endurance horse riding (40 km on a looped track). The start will be at 6 AM with the trail runners.

Nearly 400 athletes were part of history in the making as they competed in the first ever Dubai Desert Triathlon at Dubai International Endurance City on April 19 2014. The world first event brought together the triathlon disciplines of cycling and running with the traditional Emirati heritage sport of endurance horse riding.

The event, a partnership between Dubai Sports Council and Meydan, was a huge success, with the hundreds of participants and hundreds more support crews and spectators thoroughly enjoying the experience.

Participants could enter as an individual triathlete completing all three disciplines, or as a team of 2 or 3 to complete the 5km desert trail run, the 25 km cycle and the 40km endurance ride, and prizes were awarded to winners in the individual, teams, cycling and running sections.

The overall men’s triathlon was won by HH Sheikh Nasser Bin Hamed Al Khalifa of Bahrain ahead of teammate Mikel Calahorra, with Diego Bellon Santos in third.

HH Sheikh Nasser was full of praise for the event, saying “Today was perfect, the organization was very nice and I am very happy to have been part of this first ever desert triathlon. I am very happy with my times, I did what I expected to do, it’s been a beautiful day. I hope this event gets bigger every year.”

His teammate Mikel Calahorra was equally impressed, saying “Today was amazing, I only started horse riding a few months ago, When we saw this event was going to be on, His Highness Sheikh Nasser said to me ‘I am learning your sport (of triathlon), now it’s time for you to learn mine’ (horse riding) so I started riding. It’s a great mix of cultures here today and it’s been a great day”.
Third place getter Santos was thrilled to be competing in such great company, saying “It’s a pleasure to share the track with these guys, I have to fit my training around work, so to compete with great athletes like these two is great”

The overall women’s triathlon was won by Maha Khalid. She was delighted with her result saying “I enjoyed today a lot, I am a professional endurance horse rider so had to train hard on the cycling and running, but today was very good. It’s nice to bring all these cultures together, I’ll definitely be back next year”.

Second place in the women’s overall went to Ines Pintenat, with Sheelagh Pirzada in third. First place in the junior triathlon went to Atiq Hassan Ali.

Prizes were also awarded to senior and junior teams, with Al Bararri -4 taking out the junior competition and Etihad Stables 1 taking out the senior.

In the run leg the fastest female was Moroccan Champion Latifa Essarokh, ahead of Hamda Saif Alshamsi, while in the junior male section Sancho Barcia took the honours. In the senior male section Albert Robb recorded a blistering time of 14.10 for the sandy 5km desert trail. The women’s bike leg was won by Lisa Hancox, the junior male by Talal Al Balooshi and the senior male by Soufiane Haddi, just .03 of a second ahead of Ahmed Yousef Al Mansouri.

But it wasn’t just the winners who enjoyed the day, with participants excited to be part of such an innovative event. One competitor, Geoff Mitchell, said “It was brilliant to be part of this, it’s the first truly integrated multicultural event I’ve seen. It’s great to combine the Emirati culture with a triathlon and it’s so good to see so many Emiratis competing in all three disciplines. It’s a great leveler and we all love being out there competing together. Hopefully this event will carry on for many more years to come”.
Dr Ahmed Saad Al Sharif, Secretary General of the Dubai Sports Council, was delighted with the event. “We are so pleased with how successful today has been, to see such a diverse range of people competing together and enjoying participating is wonderful. We are proud to have made history today and we look forward to seeing this event become one of the hallmark events on Dubai’s sporting calendar”.

The CEO of official charity partner of the event, the Al Jalila Foundation, Dr Abdulkareem Sultan Alolama, said “Through unique events like the Dubai Desert Triathlon, the UAE continues to innovate and maintain a leading position in the global sporting community. Al Jalila Foundation was founded to contribute to the well-being of the UAE, and so we are proud to be involved with an event that not only promotes interest in fitness, but embraces endurance horse riding, a proud component of Emirati heritage.

“We are delighted to be the official charity partner of this successful event and extend our sincere appreciation to Dubai Sports Council for giving us the opportunity to raise awareness about Al Jalila Foundation. We look forward to working together on more sporting events in the future”.

For more information see
http://dubaideserttriathlon.com/