Zimbabwe is sending an impressive team of eighteen student triathletes to compete in the 2015 South African Triathlon Championships this weekend, taking place Sunday, March 1 at Buffalo City near East London. The course includes an open water swim, twisting bicycle loop through the city and beachfront run.
Quite a few of the triathletes have been using school sport opportunities to polish disciplines they use in triathlon. Gabrielle de Chassart of Hellenic, Gideon Benade of Peterhouse, Karishma Patel of Chisipite and Drew Williams of St John’s College, for example, shone at cross country meets in the first half of the term. Hellenic’s Helen Mitchell won the South African Cycling road race championships earlier this month.
The team of eight girls and ten boys will compete on Saturday with the hopes of qualifying for African Championships later this year.
Triathlon Team Zimbabwe:
U13 Girls – Sasha Gemmill and Mikayla Colegrave
U13 Boys – Tyler Martin
U15 Girls – Jamie-Lee Soper and Louise van der Westhuizen
U15 Boys – Andoni Mutzuris, Brett Elliott, Oliver Philp, Callum Waterfall and Michael Benade
U17 Girls – Gabrielle de Chassart
U17 Boys – Gideon Benade, Alex Colegrave and Reece Williams
U19 Girls – Karishma Patel, Helen Mitchell and Rebecca Duncan
U19 Boys – Drew Williams