MULLET BAY--This coming Sunday’s Powerade Aquathlon is the last event of the year for the Friendly Island Triathlon Association(FITA) and has been going strong for the last 30 years when it was originally organised by the St. Maarten Roadrunners, and called the Splash & Dash, always at Mullet Bay Beach.
The last few years have seen a fun start on the beach such as participants dancing into the water, or crawling, or as was done in 2023, creating a large man-made heart shape on the beach to emphasise love to the world.
“We always start this event with a surprise before the swim to remind everyone to not take themselves so seriously”, explained Susy Piscione from FITA, “it makes for a fun start to quite a competitive sport, and ends our race year in the right spirit”.
As always, this year’s start is a surprise but organisers promise another fun time. The race starting at 7:00am consists of two distances: 1000m swim followed by a 5k or 10k run in Mullet Bay.
“So everyone swims the same distance, but then there is a choice of the two run distances, making it attractive to all levels of participants,” she added.
Prizes are awarded to individual participants who complete both disciplines as well as to teams who share the swim and the run. An over 60 age group was added in 2024 to all of FITA’s events to allow for more competition in the veteran’s category.
Last year’s winner for the 10K individual distance was St. Martin’s Gregory Pigeon and he will be wearing the number #1 and hoping to win again. This year’s event has attracted a large number of junior athletes who will be competing in teams and as individuals.
Registration can be done online at www.trisportsxm.com/events.html and racers can pick up their bib numbers at Tri-Sport in Simpson Bay. Entry fee is US$25 which includes T-shirt and breakfast.
The Powerade Aquathlon is sponsored by CC1 and Powerade along with Vezna Taverna, Tri-Sport, Tous a L’O and YC Events.
