Duathlon gets positive response

India’s first duathlon on its longest elevated highway also raised a toast to the growing appetite for the event among Bangalore’s running and cycling enthusiasts.

Sunday’s event saw the men running 2.5 km to start with and then take their bicycles out for a 18 km ride and round off the event with another 2.5 km run.

In the men’s corporate relay, one member of the team took the 2.5 km run first and returned to hand over the bib to his team-mate, who then bicycled on the 18 km course route. After the completion of the ride, the first runner anchored the final 2.5 km to cap off the event.

Participants at the competition were all for the lesser heralded event and yearned for more in the coming days.

Neera Katwal, the duathlon women’s winner, patted the organisers for hosting the not so well-known but emerging event. “It’s a very good start as far as duathlons are concerned. There are lots of people like me who would love to be a part of this and we need to encourage it,’’ Neera, who stood second in the women’s event of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon early this year, added.

“In fact, we should gradually move into holding triathlons since there are athletes in the city who are keen on competing there as well,’’ she said.

Deepak Kaushik from Delhi echoed Neera’s thoughts saying it was a wonderful concept.  “I had never seen or heard anything like this before so it was quite an experience for me,’’ the 32-year-old Wipro engineer added.