They may not be the best-known athletes, but they had a wonderful day today: Moroccan Jawad Abdelmoula and Japanese Minori Ikeno won the Africa Triathlon Cup Dakhla. The race consisted of a 750 meter swim, 20 kilometer bike and 5 kilometer run.
Ikeno did not have much opposition, as only seven women started in the women’s race. It was exciting though, because the differences were small, as they almost always are in a Sprint Triathlon. After 1:00:57 Ikeno claimed victory, while fifteen seconds later her compatriot Chisato Nakajima took the silver. 22 seconds behind Nakajima, Kazakhstan’s Ekaterina Shabalina finished third.
With 31 athletes racing, the men’s race was more exciting, but no one was able to beat home favorite Abdelmoula. He finished the race after 52:27 minutes. Just five seconds later, Ren Sato finished second, securing the third Japanese medal of the day. Russia’s Denis Kolobrodov finished third, eleven seconds behind the fastest man of the day.
