Ebenezer Osabutey and Marie Moreau emerged victorious at the 9th edition of Cowbell Triathlon Legon Sprint Series organised by the Ghana Triathlon Federation.
The defending champion, Ebenezer Osabutey, showed he has lost none of his trademark power and rhythm on the two wheels and he hung on in the run to triumph in 1:20:06s seconds.
As the name suggests, triathlon is a multiple stage competition involving three continuous endurance disciplines – swimming, biking and running – at the same time in a distance of 600m, 20km and 5km respectively.
Fifty-eight triathletes including Australian High Commissioner to Ghana Andrew Barnes and British High Commissioner Iain Walker participated in the series.
All the winners went home with shining medals as well as products from sponsors Cowbell and a branded Ghana Triathlon Lacoste.
Speaking at the end of a successful day of competition, President of the Ghana Triathlon Federation Bawa Fuseini was happy to share the success story for the Federation.
“It is fascinating to know that those who participated in the African Cup here in Ghana this year went ahead to win the African Games in Morocco.
“They were 3rd and 4th in Ghana but emerged 1st and 2nd in the African Games. This shows what we did at Labadi earlier this year has yielded results and we are also going to focus on Ghana Triathlon not only organized but to get Ghana triathlete to compete favourably for Ghana Triathlon at the international levels.”
The race was one of the several races GTF is organizing to create and develop generational pipeline and to also unearth and polish the emerging young talents for the future of Ghana triathlon.
Another high point of the event was the reliance of the two commissioners who challenged the young athletes for honours.
British High Commissioner Iain walker was overwhelmed and commended the Federation for such an awesome organisation.
“They should do it again because I have done a few triathlon in the UK and this is really well organised and honestly this really good fun,” he noted.
“I encourage everyone to get involved because it is a mixture of abilities and some of the Ghanaians are really fantastic.”
Nicolas Huc and his team were winners in the relay event with a time of 1:11:05 seconds.
Ghana will be hosting the 2023 All Africa Games and the African Triathlon Union and the International Triathlon Union are ready to support Ghana to reach the level where it can host the rest of African competition.
The events and head of the PR of Cowbell, Gideon Kodo said: “Promasidor, the producers of Cowbell, are really grateful to Bawa and his team for the opportunity and the commitment they put in supporting this sport. We pray and hope Ghana Triathlon [Federation] grows and becomes a bigger sports in Ghana”.
He added: “Cowbell as a brand, we always have been committed to promoting lesser known sports. Cowbell for almost the past 20 years have been supporting cycling in Ghana [and] now triathlon.
“Having the two high commissioners over here, together with the athletes and the media houses as well, that are present here today and ourselves Cowbell being here, we can only say YES it’s been good and we look forward for a better one in the next competition that we organized.”
The Ghana Triathlon Federation (GTF) is preparing the ground to host all African countries next year for the ATU, ITU Africa Championship.
By Daniel Nana Kwame Yeboah|3news.com|Ghana