Doha: The long wait was over for the Qatar triathlon community which gathered for the first Qatar National Triathlon Series event for 2020/2021 season.
With following of the MOPH COVID-19 guidelines the feel and look of the event was quite different than before, but once the competitors lined up for the start, the tension rose and that great feeling of competition came to life.
Katara proved once again to be one of the best and most beautiful venues for the Sprint distance triathlon competitions.
Participants had to tackle with 750 meters of swimming, 19 km of cycling and 5,4 km of running.
The fastest one to deal with the course in Man 18-39 was Irishman Bernard McCullagh who also won the National Series in 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 season.
His time of 1h1m37s was 30 seconds shy of his last year's winning time.
McCullagh’s biggest rival Spaniard Aday Alvarez was 1m20s faster in the swim, identical on the bike leg, but lost the advantage on the tough Katara hills run and finished in second place with a time of 1m22s behind.
Third was Ambroise Aufrere (FRA) with a gap of four minutes and half.
Best three Qatari were Ebrahim Al Romaihi, Essa Al Maaded and Mubarak Alajji (Rasen Adventure Shop).
Irishmen dominated male competitions with Steve Macklin winning the Male + 40 race in front of Simon Mortimer and Ewan Cameron (both GB).
Qatar +40 race was won by Soliman Aladawi in front of Abdulaziz Almohannadi and Abdulhadi Alshawi.
Women’s 18-39 race was won by Toni Snoxell (RSA) 1h08m53s with a considerable advantage over Adeline Cormary (FRA) and Michelle Shillabeer (GB).
Best Qatari was Noor Al Jaber. Women +40 competition saw new winner in the Series Julie Melville (GB) 1h10m18s who beat the serial winner Pia Sunstedt (FIN) and Andrea Stadler (ECU).
Juniors male race was won by Patricio Gutierez (NED, 1h08m36s) and Anvitha Erini (IND) was the fastest woman junior (1h32m03s).
The team’s competitions are becoming fiercer with teams combining and resorting to find best swimmers, cyclists, and runners in the country. There were 37 teams lined up for the race.
Qatari team 1 Abdulaziz Al Obaidly/Fadehl Alkater/Khalid Alqahtani all Qatari were the fastest with time of 56m27s in front of Rasen Adventure Shop team Anas Abuyousef/Marwan Aljalham/Rachid Boudalla and National Service Academy team Peter North/Lee Jones/Barry Stoddart.
The Qatar National Triathlon Series will continue on December 4 with Lusail Triathlon.
Complete results of the Katara Triathlon 2020 can be found on https://www.qtriseries.com/event/katara-2020/results/
