By Iqbal Gafoor
Nadi Khan, formally from Lenasia who currently belongs to the Lenasia Athletic Club with so much of Comrades Marathons and road races under his belt has also taken to Triathlon and Duathlon’s, now earned his SA colour’s recently.
Earlier in the month The National Controlling Body for Triathlon and Duathon sent Nadi a letter confirming his inclusion in the SA team for the Nancy ITU Duathlon Team that will be participating in the World Championship in Nancy, France. The championships will take place on September 22/23 where representative from so many countries will be up against one another.
An exciting moment for Nadi who for the first time got selected for provincial (Gauteng) and then national colours and now will be there , also for the first time on the international stage.
Said Nadi, “ I am Looking forward to both competing and sight seeing as this is my first trip to France. I will do my best and although the competition at that level is very tough and will definitely go out there to improve my time over that distance.
Training for me has already started and must say that messages of congratulations, good wishes and support from LAC members and the community has been overwhelming.”
He continued “ Last month three of us, Brothers Bhavik, Janesh Ganda and I, as members of the Gauteng Team made the trip to Cape Province in Worchester for the SA Championships on June 17. Both of them did exceptionally well in their age categories finishing in two hours and 28 minutes, achieving top 20 positions for the efforts. I did extremely well in my race where I finished in sixth position.
I was the only one of us three that qualified for selection to the national team.
Last month on May 13 we participated in the Gauteng and the North Gauteng Duathlon championship took place In Germiston. The race comprised of 10km run, followed by a 40km cycle and finished with a 5km run. I managed the 10km run in 43 minutes, the 40km cycle race in 70 minutes an the last 5km in 23 minutes – overall time was 2 hours and 19 minutes, position 37, But was the winner with my performance in my age category. The two bothers were also selected for the nationals.”
The World Duathlon championship has been taking place since 1990 by the International Trianthlon Union. Triathlon South Africa has been sending a team for the past few years.
The Ganda brothers did well so far in their races but were rather unfortunate not to qualify, they still have a long way in their young lives to make it to the international team.
