PANAJI

Samira Abraham of Goa became the National Champion in the women’s section of the Senior National Triathlon Championship held on Sunday 11 March at Visakhapatnam, AP. Samira’s overall timing was 2 hours 30 minutes and 4 seconds — 27.45 min for 1.5km swimming; 1 hour 10 minutes and 16 seconds for 40km cycling, and 51.05 minutes for the 10 km run.

Bishworjit Singh of the Services Sports Control Board (SSCB) clinched the gold medal for men, clocking a timing of 2 hours, 9 minutes and 46 seconds — 00:21:53 for swimming, 1:05:06 for cycling and 0:42:14 for the run. Bishworjit had represented Goa in the 2015 National Games at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, where the state won a Silver Medal for the Team Triathlon.

The women’s silver medal went to Pragna Mohan of Gujarat (2:32:12). The bronze medal went to Monika Nagpure (2:36:35), also from Gujarat. The men’s silver medal went to KSH Minachandra of Services (2:11:12). L Mahesh from Manipur (2:15:30) took the bronze medal.

Goa’s second team member Aditya Kaul took a creditable 8th position in the men’s category with a timing of 02:27:46 (Swim 0:25:49, Cycling 1:10:49, Run 0:50:10). Goa’s third team member Sudhir Khude suffered a nasty fall on the cycling leg, but bravely went on to complete the Triathlon in 3:33:59 bagging 37th place.

Goa Triathlon Association President Anil Madgavkar extended his congratulations to the Goa team and called upon the Sports Authority of Goa (SAG) to promote the sport in the state.

Samira had bagged 2nd place among women in the 2017 Goa Triathlon, while Aditya had taken 18th place among men. Both have improved greatly since then, coming 1st in their respective categories in the Thonnur Triathlon and the Hyderabad Triathlon.