Bintan Triathlon 2018

The 14th running edition of Asia’s premier multisports festival, Bintan Triathlon 2018, once again returned to the property of Nirwana Gardens. The resort is one of the top-notch properties which makes the Indonesian island of Bintan the ideal location for a destination triathlon.

On the elite side of the event, Andy Wibowo and Jennifer Zenker displayed swim-bike-run master prowess to win the men’s and women’s Olympic Distance (OD) races in style.

Participants came from all parts of the world, with 46 nationalities represented among the 1,300 athletes who took part in at least one of six events on the 2018 Bintan Triathlon Festival race card.

The newest event on the Bintan Triathlon program, the Sunset Swim Classic is displayed rising popularity with numbers up 120% this year from 2017. Despite being positioned as a family-friendly adjunct to the main triathlon events with entries open to those aged 12 years and up, the number of skin suits on display testified to it being treated as a competitive race. The warm waters of a sheltered bay just off the Nirwana Sea Sports Centre provided the perfect location for the 1,000m swim, which started just as the sun began its final path to the horizon at 5 pm.

The first of the festival’s four triathlon events, the Sprint Distance race, started at 9 am on a Saturday morning. Registration numbers were up by a whopping 35% as nearly 350 competitors, many of them complete rookies aiming to complete the 750m swim/20km bike/5km run challenge. Conditions were perfect, with the sea once again pancake flat as the male wave of swimmers dashed into the water.

The last event of the day was the traditional Fun Duo Challenge, which sees pairs of relatives or friends tasked with running 1.5km, swimming 150m, and then most importantly, devising a creative way of crossing the finish line. The Fun Duo Challenge gives the kids too young to take part in the triathlon a chance to participate and the youngest person to do so on Sunday was four-and-half-year-old Toby Siepmann.

Read the full race report here.

Full results from the 2018 Bintan Triathlon can be found at https://www.bintantriathlon.com/race-results/.

The Bintan Triathlon will return next year, but a bit later than its traditional May slot, with the dates set for June 7 to 9. Details of that race will be posted soon at www.bintantriathlon.com.