What a fantastic weekend we had at Smallbridge Dam, thank you to everyone who made the journey and joined us for this event and hope that you had a great time too. The weather was brilliant even though it was rather hot and the venue was superb as always. The water levels at Smallbridge Dam have dropped dramatically since the 2023 event but this did not impact on the races at all.
It was great to have our Elite Athlete Andie Kuipers joining us again this year, it is always wonderful to have her back on home ground and have the opportunity to meet up with all our young aspiring athletes and stars of the future.
Racing conditions were good – the water temperature on race day was 24.8 degrees which meant no wet suits – the bike course was technical and fast – it was very warm on race day so we were ready and prepared to manage all the athletes at the finish line with heat management procedures. Congratulations and well done to everyone who participated in the triathlon and duathlon events – we had a Fun 4 x 500m Open Water Swim relay to bring the event to a close. Overall there were some great times achieved and valuable selection points earned by the Junior and Youth athletes.
We returned to the clubhouse and held the Lucky Draw for the Tuscany Double Bed Set donated by our sponsor KDV Bedding – all participating athletes and Technical Officials names were put into the hat and the lucky winner was ….. Technical Official Demos Koutoungos – very well deserved winner !! We also had some Spot Prizes of caps and t-shirts very kindly donated by Electrosales – congratulations to all the lucky the winners !!
The results from the events can be viewed and downloaded from this website – the Selection Points will be published once verified by the Selectors. A gallery of photos from the weekend is currently being compiled and has been uploaded to the website (have a sneak peak https://www.zimtri.org/7-dec-2024-penhalonga/) – more pics are being added so thank you to all who have contributed to the galleries and for posting your own pics on our social media platforms – please go and have a look and tag yourselves on our Facebook page and feel free to add more photos as well.
The Smallbridge Dam, Penhalonga event is always a great favourite on our season calendar, it goes without saying that this event would not have been possible without the support and sponsorship from KDV BEDDING who have been the title sponsor of this event for 3 years. We take this opportunity to extend a huge thank you from the Triathlon Zimbabwe family for their support, and for this year’s edition, the additional donation of a brand new Tuscany Double Bed Set as a prize.
There are many others whose support and assistance was invaluable and we extend our sincere thanks to the following –
The Organising Team, the TZ Technical Officials, Water Safety Crew and all the Mums and Dads who were roped in to assist with the race management
Gareth Barry for all his assistance liaising with ZRP in Penhalonga pre-event
Eastern Angling Society for allowing us to use your beautiful venue – thanks to Nathan and Samuel for looking after us so well making sure the clubhouse and the showers were immaculate and for helping with the clearing and set up of the transition and race venue at the Dam Wall
Shingi and Melody Pswarayi and the fantastic team from The Draughtman – you made sure we had the most delicious food and drinks for the whole weekend
Schweppes ZImbabwe – thank you for keeping us all hydrated with Bonaqua Still Water
Shaun Shelton and Electrosales for the t-shirts and caps given out as spot prizes
Emras Medical Crew and ZRP Penhalonga – and finally
to all the parents and athletes who supported the event – we hope you all had a great weekend and got home safely. For those who have not been to the Smallbridge Dam Penhalonga event before – please do consider it for 2025 – you will really enjoy it.
We look forward now to a few weeks break over the festive period and hope to see as many of you as possible at the LUNA ROAD EVENT on SUNDAY 12TH JANUARY 2025 – WATCH THIS SPACE FOR MORE INFORMATION …
Wishing you all a peaceful, safe and happy Christmas,
