A month after the inaugural staging of Challenge Cape Town, in South Africa, ‘the Mother City’s first middle distance triathlon’, the event has won the Best New Race category in the international Challenge Family Awards.
The winners in the 12 award categories were decided by popular vote from Challenge Family athletes, ‘giving race participants the power to rate their race experience’. Other categories included Best Fans, Most Family Friendly, Best Swim / Cycle / Run Course, Most Eco-Friendly, and Race of the Year. Challenge Cape Town was also a finalist in the Most Eco-Friendly category, but narrowly lost to Germany’s Challenge Heilbronn.
“I was proud and excited to receive the news that we won the Best New Race on the Challenge Family international circuit,” said Challenge Cape Town’s Race Director, Gary Marescia. “It is a great accolade and testament to the strength of the team that pulled this event together.
“This prestigious award is also the direct result of the fantastic collaboration between the organising team, Triathlon South Africa and the City of Cape Town. A big thank you goes to the participants who came out and supported the race, as well as to our sponsors who shared our vision to bring middle distance triathlon to Cape Town. We have commenced our event planning for 2020, and are excited to grow Challenge Cape Town into one of South Africa’s biggest triathlons in the coming years.”
The inaugural Challenge Cape Town featured a point-to-point race course, starting with a 1.9km Big Bay swim, a flat and fast 90km cycle into the CBD, and culminating in a 21km run through the Zonnebloem and District Six precincts. The event was won by Pablo Dapena from Spain, and British pro, Emma Pallant.
Challenge Cape Town will return on 8 November 2020. Entries have opened, with early bird rates available to the first 250 entrants.
