South-Africa’s Bradley Weiss won’t be racing the PTO Canadian Open this weekend due to visa issues. On Instagram, he explains that he keeps having to deal with these obstacles, like so many other South African athletes: “Being from Africa has many challenges, logistically the farthest place from almost every important race on the calendar making these races extra challenging for us. But unfortunately, visas and gaining access to first world countries remains one of the biggest hurdles.”
“Where most of my competitors can make last minute decisions to travel around the world, us as Africans have many more hoops to jump through in order to be granted entry”, the multiple Xterra World Champion and Ironman 70.3 winner continues. “I was notified by the PTO in May of my invitation to compete in Canada and immediately began my visa application process. We are now nearly two months since my initial application and I have yet to receive my visa. This makes preparation nearly impossible, having no certainty of whether this visa will be approved. My team and I made the decision shortly after Roth that it would be smarter to take a mid-season break now and then begin the long build to Kona. I am really sad to be missing this landmark event and hopeful that I will be able to race in 2023.”
