Woman from Kazakhstan wins Asian Triathlon Cup

Sixty-nine triathletes (46 men and 23 women) from 19 countries competed in the 2019 Almaty ASTC Asian Triathlon Cup: Australia, Hungary, Germany, Hong Kong, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Palestine, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Syria, Uzbekistan, Philippines , France, Switzerland, South Africa, South Korea, Japan all sent representatives.

The competition on the shores of Lake Sairan in Almaty had a special status since the athletes were competing not only for prizes, but also for rating points that could allow them to compete at the Tokyo Olympics.

The women went first. To begin with it seemed that the race would take place in fairly comfortable conditions with an air temperature of +26 °c and a water temperature of + 21 °c. However, an hour later the sun had heated the coast of Sairan to 35 degrees above zero. This affected the performances of some athletes - unable to withstand the heat, the Korean triathlete left, and the South African athlete became ill after the finish.

Before the competition, everyone expected that the main struggle would unfold between the Korean Yun Chun Chan (8th place in the Asian ranking), Kazakh Arina Shulgina (11th place) and Japanese Maiko Nishi (16th place). But triathlon is full of surprises. Despite the short “sprint” distance (750 m swimming, 20 km cycling, and 5 km of running), German Lina Volker took the lead after the swimming stage, somebody who had hitherto gained little attention - Lina is a “journeyman” with 80th place in the Asian ratings.

In a word, it was very close to a small sporting sensation, but after the cycle stage a member of the national team of the Republic of Kazakhstan Arina Shulgina blitzed the competition. In the running phase, she beat all the athletes and became the winner with a total time of 1 hour 03 minutes 43 seconds. In second place was Korean Ye Jin Park with a time of 1 hour 03 minutes 57 seconds. The third leading place was filled by her compatriot Giri Kim — in 1 hour 04 minutes 08 seconds.

 “In the swimming, I positioned myself a little incorrectly,” Arina Shulgin admitted after the finish, “I made mistakes in the transit zone, but then corrected myself in the cycling race, caught up with the group, and everything went as it should. This is 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 rankings - Oscar Coggins from Hong Kong (3rd place in the continental rating), Kazakh Ayan Beisenbaev (4th place in the rating), Japan's Ren Sato (6th place), Felix Dyushamp (25 place in the ranking) and Serb Ognen Stoyanovich (49th place).

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

Summing up the Asian Triathlon Cup in Almaty, the technical delegate of ASTC (Asian Triathlon Confederation, uniting 29 countries) Biambaa Tsagaanbaatar (Mongolia) noted that the event, held in the southern capital of Kazakhstan, was held to the highest organizational level. “Kazakhstan has become a true center for triathlon development,” said an ASTC spokesperson. This is also evidenced by the fact that, on the initiative of the President of the KTF Karim Masimov, triathletes from Central Asian countries are united into the Central Asian Triathlon Association (CATA). Today the association includes the federations of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Iran and Afghanistan.

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

“Ninety percent Arina Shulgina will be able to obtain a license and compete 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 had 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 at Tokyo 2020 in the