Female participation for IronMan 70.3 increases by 50pc

IronMan 70.3 saw a 50 per cent increase in female participation, it was learned during the press conference held yesterday in the presence of the organizing committee heads, representatives of the sponsoring companies and members of Bahrain Endurance 13 Team and Bahrain National Triathlon Team. Speaking to Tribune, Amal Al Murbati, CEO of Faalyat, the organizing company of the championship, stated that the fourth edition of IronMan has seen an immense increase in female participation. “This year we have a lot of women as compared to before, we have seen a 50pc increase in participation which is incredible.

Even the IronGirl which is a side event has received tremendous participation. In the past few years, there wasn’t as much participation from women. This shows that more women are involved, not necessarily in the triathlon but moving toward a healthier lifestyle and taking physical activities more seriously,” said Al Murbati. Among the athletes present at the press conference, Bahrain’s own Samira Al Bitar, a 2-time Olympic swimmer expressed her appreciation toward the female participants. “It is wonderful that we have a lot of Bahraini female athletes that are participating in the race for the first time, it is very exciting to see that they are getting into the sport.

It is a very difficult race, this is my second time and it pleases me to see all these women training together and embarking on this journey together. I’m very excited to see how they perform and I hope this inspires the younger generation to start into sports and leading a healthy lifestyle. Hopefully, we see more and more women joining this race in the years to come,” stated Al Bitar. Avenues have been chosen as the venue for IronMan 70.3 for its welcoming and scenic representation of Bahrain. “The venue is new for the fourth edition, this year we have chosen the Avenues Park. The place is wonderful; it shows most of the iconic buildings in the country. The run will cover a lot of the sceneries in the country.

The commencement and the finish line will be at the Avenues. We have received very positive feedback from the participants so far,” revealed Al Murbati. Apart from the milestone in female participation, Ironman 70.3 has also witnessed a large participation from children. “We have introduced some side events, including the aquathlon for the kids between the age group of five to 14 year, which include swimming and running. We are truly surprised by the major amount of registration we received,” stated Al Murbati. As the number of children participants reached nearly 900, concerns regarding safety and protection of the children motivated the organizers to be fully equipped for handling them.

“The number of participants places a challenge on us because kids are not easy to manage, especially during the race. We are very equipped for this, we have our IronMan team coming from Germany as well as other countries to support us and we are ready for the race,” stated Al Murbati. The itinerary for the race will include Ironkids (running), Irongirls (5km run) and Iron Aquathlon (running and swimming) for the 7th of December and 1.9km swimming race, 90km cycling race and finally the 21.1 run on 8th December.