Kazakhstani athlete wins Asian Triathlon Cup

In 2019 Almaty ASTC Triathlon Asian Cup competed in 69 triathletes (46 men and 23 women) from 19 countries: Austria, Hungary, Germany, Hong Kong, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Syria, Uzbekistan, the Philippines , Switzerland, South Africa, South Korea, Japan.

The race on the shore of Sairan in Almaty had a special status: after all, athletes fought not only for prizes, but also for rating points that allowed them to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.

At first it seemed that the race would take place in fairly comfortable conditions at an air temperature of +26°C and a water temperature of + 21°C. However, an hour later the sun heated the coast of Sayran to 35 degrees above zero. This affected the performances of some athletes - unable to withstand the heat, the triathletes from Korea, and the South African became ill after the finish.

Before the race, everyone expected that the main struggle will unfold between the Korean Yun Chun Chan (8th place in the Asian ranking), Kazakhstani Arina Shulgina (11th place) and Japanese Maiko Nishi (16th place). But the triathlon is full of surprises. Despite the short “sprint” distance (750 m swim, 20 km bike and 5 km run), German Lina Volker took the lead after the swim course, which almost no one took into account - Lina is the “solid middle peasant” of the Asian rating, which is in 80th place.

In a word, it was very close to a small sporting sensation, but after the bike course a member of the national team Arina Shulgina demonstrated her power. On run course she beat all the athletes and became the winner with a total time of 1 hour 03 minutes 43 seconds. On second place is Korean Ye Jin Park with a time of 1 hour 03 minutes 57 seconds. The three leaders were closed by her compatriot Giri Kim - 1 hour 04 minutes 08 seconds.

“On swim course, I chose the position a little incorrectly,” Arina Shulgin admitted after the finish, “made mistakes in the transit zone, but then corrected herself on bike course, caught up with the group, and everything went as it should.” This despite the fact that the running stage was difficult even for me, although this is my forte. The track is not easy - a steep hill on each lap and heat!"

Among men, sports experts identified the following favorites included in the top 100 of the world ranking - Oscar Coggins from Hong Kong (3rd place in the continental ranking), Kazakhstani Ayan Beisenbaev (4th place in the ranking), Japanese Ren Sato (6th place), Felix Dushampt (25 place in the ranking) and serbian Ognen Stoyanovich (49th place).

What came out in the end? It turned out that in a fierce struggle (you can not say otherwise), the victory from the rivals was literally wrested by Felix Duchampt, racing the ITU flag with a result of 55 minutes 51 seconds. Oscar Coggins took the second place, with a time of 56 minutes 09 seconds, and Ognen Stoyanovich won “bronze” for the result of 56 minutes 20 seconds. Ayan Beisenbaev came in fourth, showing the time 56 minutes 35 seconds.

Summing up the Asian Triathlon Cup in Almaty, the technical delegate of ASTC (Asian Triathlon Confederation, uniting 35 countries) Biamba Tsagaanbaatar (Mongolia) noted that the event, held in the southern capital of Kazakhstan, was held at the highest organizational level. “Kazakhstan has become a true center for triathlon development,” said an ASTC representative. This is also evidenced by the fact that, on the initiative of the President of KFT Karim Massimov, the triathletes of Central Asia countries united in the Central Asian Association of Triathlon (CATA). Today the association includes the federations of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and Afghanistan."

As for the licenses for the Olympics, the head coach of the Kazakhstan triathlon team Andrei Glushchenko evaluated our chances as follows:

- 90 percent Arina Shulgina will be able to obtain a license and race at the Olympics. We have Ayan Beisenbaev for men, he has a great chance of getting to the Olympics, as well as the young Daryn Konysbaev, who has the best run in Asia. Although he is only 20 years old, he is progressing in swimming, in the future he has very great opportunities to compete for a license. I expect Kazakhstan to have at least two licenses in Tokyo 2020 in a triathlon.