The athletic contest Challenge Vietnam took place at 2-4 Square, Nha Trang City on September 11. This triathlon, organized by Challenge Family, sponsored by IPPGroup/ CRTC, was joined by 218 professional and amateur athletes from 31 teams of countries and territories over the world.
The athletic contest Challenge Vietnam took place at 2-4 Square, Nha Trang City on September 11. This triathlon, organized by Challenge Family, sponsored by IPPGroup/ CRTC, was joined by 218 professional and amateur athletes from 31 teams of countries and territories over the world.
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Challenge Family including three disciplines namely swimming, cycling and running first held in Roth (Germany) in 2002. Until now, there have been around 44 long-distance triathlons organized on four continents. Challenge Vietnam has been the first race of Challenge Family held in Vietnam. An estimated 500 athletes came to Nha Trang to take part in the athletic contest. Quite many professional athletes across the world joined this sports event, such as Mitch Robins (Australia) – champion of Ironman 70.3 Japan 2015, Jessica Fleming (Sweden) – runner-up of Challenge Taiwan 2016, Nguyen Thi Gia Tue (Vietnam) – the first female athlete of Vietnam finishing the competition in the 2014 ironman world Championship 70.3.
Challenge Vietnam began with the 1.9km swimming event. After that, the athletes competed in a bike race covering a distance of 90 km with the start and finish point is 2-4 Square. The 21km running along Tran Phu Street and Pham Van Dong Street was the last event of the triathlon.
Each competitor had eight hours and thirty minutes to complete the races. However, some athletes reached the finish line after four hours and thirty minutes. Finally, athlete Mitch Robins won Challenge Vietnam 2016 in a time of 04:04:44. Levi Maxwell of Australia finished second in 04:05:20; Carlos Quinchara Forero of Colombia came third in 04:11:48.
“This is the first time I have watched such an exciting large-scale sports event. I am so surprised at the physical strength of the athletes. I hope that there will be more world-class sports contests held in Nha Trang City,” said Nguyen Trong Binh, a spectator.
At the end of the triathlon, the organization board gave awards worth from VND11.7 to VND67.7 million to the top five of men’s and women’s professional event; two first prizes and two second prizes to amateur athletes. Two first prizes were also offered to two male and female athletes of Vietnam who finished first among other Vietnamese competitors.
An Nhien
Translated by H.N
