Good Start For Swaleh Balala At the All Africa Triathlon Championships
The Source: www.coastweek.com - 20/07/2009
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It was an exciting moment for the two young Kenyans at the start line up during the All African Triathlon Champs in Durban, South Africa. Aliasger Sheikh Quresh, a 14 year old triathlete was out of the sport for 2 years did a great performance in spite of the long leave from the sport.Aliasger had a stiff challenge from athletes who came from South Africa, Mauritius, Re Union Islands and Zimbabwe but managed to come in the 14-15 years category.Swaleh Balala, a rising star in the Multi-sport of Triathlon set up an amazing start Triathlon.Africa.Swaleh, who is 8 months old in the sport managed to beat the best times set by triathletes in the 2006 /2007 ITU Mombasa African Cup triathlons like the 18/19 years olds 1st position Arnaud Pajaniandy from Mauritius with 01:18:18 while Mujtaba Husseinali Dungersi with 01:20:09 and Masoud Swaleh 01:30:08 with 4th position J-Alexandre Louise from Re Union Islands with 01:40:56.He also beat the times set by the 16/17 years olds set by 1st position Lucas Parmentier from Re Union Islands with 1:19:48 while 2nd position Shaneali Husseinali Dungersi with 01:22:01 while 3rd position was Aakash Kamdar with 1:28:27.Swaleh who just turned 16 years managed to achieve 1:12:09 in the cold and hilly terrain of Durban .He came 20th position out of 24 from the 16 years to 19 years.“I am satisfied with the performance, he would have done better but the hand injury sustained during the training greatly affected his performance.”"It has been a very important occasion for the two young athletes to be side by side with Abraham Lowe from Namibia who is ranked 4th in the World.”We are aiming now for the top and I believe that we shall reach that level in 2 years time.” says Suleiman Said who is an ITU Certified Triathlon Coach in Kenya .The two young athletes are now in top level training program which will take them to the YULs Aquadrom Cross Triathlon which is a very important race for all Kenyan triathletes.YULs Aquadrom Triathlon is a unique event from all the rest of Triathlons on the Kenyan soil. It will be the 1st event which will be used to select Kenyan team for Mauritius in December 2009.The athletes are working hard to see that during the ITU Mombasa African Cup set for 21/22 November at Coast Academy and Old Town , the Visiting athletes will face a tough challenge from our triathletes.Finally, the new and exciting Triathlon event taking place in Malindi on 12/13 of December will be the last event for the 2 young athletes in Kenya as they leave the following day for the Mauritius Continental Triathlon on 14th to 27th December 2009
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