Last weekend, Nur-Sultan hosted one of its showpiece sports competitions - the Ironman 70.3 triathlon challenge, which was attended by 112 relay teams from 75 countries, reports QazMonitor citing the press service of akimat of Nur-Sultan.
The triathlon challenge gathered over 2,200 amateur triathletes who came to test their strength, endurance, and speed in a 17-hour time-limited race. All of the participants were from different backgrounds and ages, with the youngest being Avishkar Gacgale from India (18 years), and the oldest Sergey Kolga from Russia and Reinhard Drohla from Germany (both 72).
Among all of the triathletes was a mother-and-son duo from Belagavi, India, reports The Hans India. Mayura Shivalkar, who is a cancer survivor, completed the three-stage race spanning 226.7 km together with her son Megh Shivalkar, enduring 3.8 km of swimming, 180 km of biking, and 42.2 km of running.
It took Megh 11 hours to reach first place in the 18-24 age group, and Mayura finished the challenge in 15 hours, competing for the 45-49 age group. The duo are far from newbies - in 2018, they competed in the 111 km half ironman at Columbo, Sri Lanka, where Mayura become the first triathlon athlete from India to have overcome cancer. According to sources, the pair is preparing to enter yet again next year.
️There were also those who attended the event as fans - like British Ambassador Kathy Leach who attended the competition from early morning. Many of the attendees participated in half Ironman challenges, like Alexander Whisker, who is also from Britain. He came first in his 55-59 age group, where he had to complete 5-hour 2 km swim, with 90 km bike ride, and a half Ironman distance. Overall, 1,400 of the attendees competed in the "partial" distance and about 800 in the "full" distance.
The winners of the race were announced the same day by the press service of the city. Alex Grigoriev from Russia won first place with 8 hours and 13 minutes. His fellow countryman Anton Bereznyak came in second (8 hours 49 minutes), with Kazakhstan's own Alexey Vshivtsev coming in third place (8 hours 51 minutes). Among women, Russia's Valentina Kukrus came first (9 hours 46 minutes), Turkey's Guney Merve came second (10 hours 9 minutes), and Russia's Irina Vladimirova took third place (10 hours 23 minutes).
