Dubai: Former Arab Triathlon champion Roy Nasr has set out to raise the profile of the sport in the UAE after announcing an ambitious calendar starting in October.
The first of the eight-round triathlons — called the Jones Lang LaSalle Super Sprint and Sprint Triathlon — will get under way at the Jebel Ali Golf Resort on October 12.
“The objective is to put on the very best multi-sport races in Dubai,” Nasr told Gulf News. “We have managed to combine triathlons, aquathons and duathlon races over the entire season while operating from Hatta and Jebel Ali.”
Though a veteran of many triathlons worldwide since making his debut way back in 1994, Nasr has been prominent in the sport he has loved. Last year he teamed up with Ian Le Pelley to set up TriDubai, a completely free triathlon club in Dubai, which has more than 800 members.
And now to launch the series, Nasr and Le Pelley have teamed up with triathlon enthusiast Chris Berglehner to bring together more than 40 years of experience in the sport.
In next month’s season-opening race, participants can choose to compete in the super sprint event, consisting of a 375-metre swim, a 10-kilometre bike ride and a 2.5km run, or the sprint event of 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run.
“The idea still is to get people involved in a demanding sporting discipline like triathlons and duathlons,” Nasr said. “We’ve done well with more than 800 members in our club already and I am sure this series of races will further help raise the profile of this sport.”
More recently, Nasr has been trying to promote triathlons in his native Lebanon after conducting a training camp at the Antoura Sports Centre in Keserwan in April last year. The event was a unique opportunity for triathletes to race, train and chat with the most-decorated Lebanese. After winning the Abu Dhabi Triathlon at Yas Marina Circuit in 2011, Nasr’s last big win came at the Ironman 70.3 race in Sri Lanka in 2012.
Since then, he has been busy setting up TriDubai and the planning of a race series.
