Stage set for Iron Man
The National, Wednesday 5th June 2013
By HENRY MORABANG
THE town of Wewak in East Sepik province will erupt into festivities this weekend as the town celebrates the 10th Anniversary of the Sepik Iron Man event.
Athletes from all over the province with ring-ins from Port Moresby, Lae, Goroka, Manus and other parts of PNG will be converging on the northern coastal town to compete for the K22,500 prize earnings.
Started in 2004 with 20 athletes, the Sepik Iron Man event today commands a permanent fixture of the provincial calendar every June as the Event of Year.
The event this year will once again attract a record number of athletes – organisers say there will be at least 400 athletes.
The event is a off-shoot of Triathlon but is run as a team relay event. The first part is a 4km run, followed by a 15km bike ride, a 800m swim and finished by a 5km run.
NCD Governor Powes Parkop is flying to Wewak to celebrate this occasion with a team comprising some of Port Moresby’s seasoned triathletes and runners.
Team NCD is made up of Port Moresby roader runners Swans Pinampio, UPNG student and runner Eliabeth Rihatta, former Miss PNG and PNG representative triathlete Rachel James and Port Moresby cycling speedster Lee Rassmussen.
Meanwhile, Andrew Duggin of Point Engineering established his dominance last weekend as the person to beat in the Global Construction triathlon series.
Duggin won the Olympic Distance triathlon event in a time of 2 hours 23 minutes. On close second was Anni Galdames of PSI in 2:23.20 while Alotau’s Callum Skeet finished third with 2:25.30.
May was the second installment of the Global Construction sponsored triathlon series.
The tri series also comprised of a sprint distance event and a super sprint event.
The winner of the sprint distance was Steph Albert of Steamships in 1 hour and 6 minutes, followed by Caroline McGann 1:10 and team Mosbi Mamas took up third placing.
The winner of the super sprint category was Marina van der Vlies in 34 minutes and 35 seconds followed by Bianca Nicholas.
A kids event was included in the May event and organisers said this would be part of all future events this year.