Ironman comes to SL

 From left: Tisara Samarasuriya and Chantal Sirisena of Triathlon Club Colombo, Spinner Marketing Manager Mithun Liyanage, Hayleys Tours General Manager Rowan Asiriwatham, Yasas Hewage, IRONMAN triathlete Rajan Thananayagam, IRONMAN Asia Operations Manager Carl Smith, Shangri-la Hotel Colombo Sales and Marketing Director Chris McFall, Upekha Wickramaratne and Julian Boling

The world renowned Ironman Triathlon series is coming to Sri Lanka next year, when some 1000 athletes are expected to descend on the island nation to take part in one the most grueling competitions in world sport.

Scheduled for 25 February 2018, The Ironman 70.3 Colombo will feature a 1.9 km sea swim, 90km bike ride and a 21.1km run all to be completed by either an individual or as a team within a seven-hour period. 

The Ironman 70.3 Triathlon Series – 70.3 refers to the total distance covered by athletes in miles – is half the length of a full Ironman Triathlon and will be the first-ever Ironman event in South Asia. The race, which is being organised by sports event management company Pro-Am Serendib Ltd., will be a qualifying event for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships in Nelson Mandela Bay, South Africa. To add to the occasion there will also be an Ironkids event held on 24 February 2018 to encourage children between the ages of 7 to 13 to participate and earn the title of Ironkids. The venue for both events will be Galle Face Green.

The Ministry of Sports and The Ministry of Tourism have endorsed Pro-Am Serendib’s initiative to hold Ironman 70.3 Colombo while acknowledging “the immense benefits, prestige and international attention it will bring to Sri Lanka.” Shangri-La Hotel, Colombo is the official Host Hotel for Ironman 70.3 Colombo whilst Hayleys Tours is the official travel partner of the event.

Beginning as a single race, Ironman has grown to become a global sensation with more than 200 events across 50 countries. A Wanda Sports Holdings company, Ironman operates a global portfolio of events that includes the Ironman Triathlon Series, the Ironman 70.3 Triathlon Series, 5150 Triathlon Series, the Rock n Roll Marathon Series, Iron Girl, Ironkids International Triathlon Union World Triathlon Series races, road cycling events including the UCI Velothon Majors Series, mountain bike races including the Absa Cape Epic, premier marathons including the Standard Chartered Singapore Marathon and other multisport races.

However, despite there being 255 Ironman branded events globally, none are in the South Asian region. Since the end of the war Sri Lanka has gradually expanded its tourist appeal and, with events such as the Colombo Marathon, have shown the potential that exists for events such as this.

“We acknowledge Sri Lanka as a new frontier in the Asian region. We recognise the country’s huge potential and appetite for a significant international mass participation event of this nature,” said Ironman Asia Operations Manager Carl Smith at the launch event last week.

“This event aligns perfectly with our global and regional strategy of growing the sport of triathlon from the grassroots up in this part of the world. Hopefully we will be able to use this race to nurture development in the endurance sports space as well as to foster new athletes of all shapes and sizes, ages, genders, abilities and backgrounds.”

The event is expected to attract around 750-1000 athletes and another 1500 as crew, families and

friends, while simultaneously providing a boost to the tourism industry in Sri Lanka, since this is the first sporting event of this magnitude to be held in Sri Lanka. Moreover, at least 300 liaison officers and 100 officials from Sri Lanka will be trained by international experts on how to officiate, and as such it is expected to build local capability and capacity to host further international multisport endurance sporting events in Sri Lanka. In this light, Sutheash Balasubramaniam, the Managing Director of the Sri Lanka Tourism Promotion Bureau, said that he hopes this event will be the first of many.

“This is an excellent event to showcase Sri Lanka and Sri Lanka Tourism is looking to have a calendar full of events, and with most of it world class, this fits in very well; and we hope that we will be able to roll out many more events like this in the years to come,” said Balasubramaniam.

The event also aims to support the national reconciliation and integration efforts of the Government by encouraging local athletes from the north and the south to form teams and participate together.

Minister of Sports Dayasiri Jayasekera added: “Sports has emerged as an important component of socioeconomic development in our country. Participation in sports improves discipline and character. Further, I would say the execution of district, provincial, national, and international sporting events help in developing infrastructure, generating employment and securing the flow of foreign capital so as to contribute significantly to the economic development of the country.” 

In a press release Pro-Am Serendib added that it was hopeful that Ironman 70.3 Colombo would become an annual event, putting Sri Lanka on the global triathlon map. The company hopes to hold a number of activities to promote the sport of triathlon in Sri Lanka to eventually achieve at least 20% local representation at the event.

The release added: “With international hotels such as Shangri-La, Sheraton, Marriott, Grand Hyatt, Movenpick opening in 2017 onwards and seven other BOl hotel projects in the pipeline, Ironman 70.3 Colombo event in February 2018 would be able to attract high profile, affluent, high-spending travellers to Sri Lanka and thereby contribute to Sri Lanka’s target of four million tourist arrivals by 2020, while leveraging the trend to become a regional hub for sports tourism.”

Pix by Ruwan Walpola