Presently, people can only imagine the sport of triathlon as being done outdoors.
Now, there’s an indoor triathlon venue for active individuals or even competitive athletes for their training.
Located at the heart of Bonifacio Global City’s SM Aura, this multi sport zone will serve as perfect venue for triathletes without heavy traffic and inclement weather.
Credit goes to Fitness First, which has been operating in the Philippines for the past 15 years, and headed by its Country Manager Mark Ellis, himself a hard core triathlete.
And to introduce the event for the first time, Fitness First held the first ever individual indoor triathlon competition that had three national triathletes and three club members participating.
Carrying the flag for the Triathlon Association of the Philippines( TRAP ) were SEA Games gold medalist two years ago Claire Adorna, together with Mark Hosana and Wacky Banigued, top aspirant for a slot in the Youth Olympic Games ( YOG ), while facing them were former national triathlete Kaye Lopez, Jamie Ramirez, and Myk Jamistoso.
For the venue, it was at the second floor of the 2100 sq.m. facility of Fitness First at SM Aura, with a swimming pool that can accommodate six triathletes at the same time, and state of the art stationary bikes for spinning and treadmills, all adjustable to simulate road conditions.
It goes without saying that an indoor triathlon venue like this offers a higher safety environment, particularly on traffic and carbon monoxide emissions, no rain or bad weather, no difference between day or night,
National triathlon coach Angelo Lozada, one of the guests at the event, also pointed out that for coaches like him, in terms of training, he can easily monitor the performance of his wards at 100% level as he can see them train throughout the session.
Another advantage that he sees is that it makes it easier for working triathletes, particularly busy executives, to squeeze in the needed training time whether it is only for an hour or a couple of hours.
Another national coach, many-time national champion Ani de Leon-Brown said that based on what she saw, indoor triathlon is good and exciting and comes close to an actual outdoor triathlon in terms of intensity but without some uncontrolled factors of an outdoor race.
Going back to the competition, with Hosana bucking a stoppage of his bike when the plug was accidentally pulled by onlookers, came up with a 4.4K completed distance in the bike, then literally run away in the run leg with 1.37 kilometers for a total of 6.6 cumulative distance to take first place.
Banigued finished second with a total of 5.66 kilometers while in third place was club member Ramirez at 5.55 kilometers. Jamistoso took 4th place ahead of Adorna as he completed 5.44 kilometers in the given time.