Politics unfolded

Politics here are going too far and here's what another triathlete with decent heart and dedication to the sport says about it:
http://tritwins.blogspot.com/2012/10/malaysian-triathlon-federation-polotics.html?m=1

The Star Article: Way to Go Rikigoro

Few weeks back I had an interview done by The Star on my athletic career. Thanks to Jason Thiang for the arrangment of it all!

http://thestar.com.my/metro/story.asp?sec=central&file=/2012/10/8/central/12048227

Cold Storage Triathlon National Championships

Singapore hosted a triathlon again as they always had for the past few years under the same organisers at the same location- East Coast Park E2..
It was slightly disappointing that last year was their 10th anniversary (Was named OSIM ITU triathlon Asian Cup) and would be their final ITU year. I'm not sure of the reason it has stopped being ITU sanctioned. Nevertheless, it was still a race and one I wanted to give all. I did, and happy with that.

During my stay in Singapore I was accommodated by I singaporean friend- Joel Wong -and his family. It was lovely and they treated me to feel like home but with too much friendly service! Can't thank them enough for that.

Our race was held on a late saturday afternoon at 11am, after all the previous events had gone. The waters were calm and conditions were hot, but great. Well, it was definitely great compared to what I had gone through the weekend before in Desaru!
To the blow of te horn we sprinting into the sea with little beach/water running before 'falling' onto the water. It wasn't much of a hassle trying to swim around the crowd and soon I was leading the pack within the first 200m or so. The swim course was a 750m laid out in an upside down "L" shape. I got to the tip and made my U-turn to begin swimming back to the shore before noticing I was completely alone. It was worrying as I thought I had swum the wrong direction or something like that, and slowed down a little and even stopped to look back. I saw nothing but waves. It was the point where I decided I'd just keep swimming no matter what and try to ignore the confusion.
Exiting the water, I took a glance back to take a look at my competitors but there weren't in sight.
I swam a time of 9.49min with only mid effort on the middle sections of the swim leg!

The bike leg was ment to be non-drafting, but with so many people around, it was impossible. (The OD distance age groupers started 20min ahead of us, which ment all 400+ people were still out on the 6.6km thin, tight, technical coarse). It was a mess. I had many dead-stops on U-turns and held back a lot as people took up the entire roads and declined us any passage through. It was frustrating. halfway through I noticed i started to bleed from my nose (Again!) but kept going and it eventually eased of towards the end of the bike. I completed the 20km in 36min (According to the organisers, though on my computer it clocked 34min)

The run was where I really gave it all. Again adding to my frustration, the path was only one-man wide and it was blocked by OD age groupers the entire way. I was heating up badly and needed to splash myself so I grabbed 2 cup of water at every station I passed. At every single station I went, the cups were F*ing empty. To make matter worse the people filling it laid the cups out on their end of the large table. This resulted in runners reaching out far and many even having to stop to grab the cups. It added to the already congested roads. I held it in and towards the last 1.5km (and last station) I was starting to overheat and needed water badly. I took no chances and stopped at the station, grabbed the half-full cups then only carried on. It added a fair bit of time to my run. I eventually crossed the finish line with a run split of 20min and a total time on 1.06hrs. At this point I really wish it was ITU Sanctioned as that would have ment the Hong Kong boys and various other countries would have been here, and I could have been able to see where I would have been placed up with them, especially with the swim I had clocked at a comfortable pace!
Plus, the prizes for the winner was pathetic either ways..

Happy with my performance overall but disappointed in the organisation of the event this year. It could have easily taken a few minutes off my bike and run!
This got worse when we waited for 4hrs for the presentation under the sun, and they had a technical error and I was not registered properly. Basically, someone else got on the podium for the 1st place.
After another 1hr of wait and explanations and misunderstandings, it was finally sorted out saying that my timing chip had somehow skipped a checked point as "I didn't step right on the small red mat" but matters were resolved as I went through all important ones such as the halfway U-turn point.

My prize was depressing as well. I gold medal and an envelope including a $147 worth of Pilate voucher. It's basically like yoga.
Staright after, the organisers walked off with a box full of Soleus watches, other envelopes, and massive Maxifuel Goodie bags, all in the box clearly labelled "PRIZES"


It was a great race and I loved the race coarse, but I felt the organisation let me down a lot especially compared to last years race and years before that. The officiating was poor and volunteers were obviously not instructed and trained properly to do anything.
Lets hope they work something out and bring the race back to being ITU Sanctioned!

Riki