On the Ground From Challenge Sir Bani Yas

Just to get any conflicts out of the way – I just got off a 16-hour flight back from working as the lead announcer at Challenge Sir Bani Yas in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Ever since it was announced last year, there was lots of anticipation about the new event on Sir Bani Yas Island. One of the largest natural islands in the UAE, the island has a wildlife reserve that’s home to roughly 17,000 animals including Arabian oryx, gazelles, giraffes, hyenas and cheetahs.

In addition to the interesting venue, what also made the Challenge Sir Bani Yas event unique was the plan to have all the competitors stay on a cruise ship which would dock at the jetty next to the race site. Unfortunately the cruise ship dropped out of the picture heading into the event, which made for a challenging scenario for the organizers and athletes. There’s limited accommodation on the island, so most athletes and most of the event staff were housed in Al Hannah City. That made for a long day of transfers to get to the race – a 20 to 30 minute bus ride from the accommodation to the ferry, roughly 30 minutes across to the island, then roughly 15 to 20 mins on a shuttle from the ferry port to the race site.

In the end, though, the unique event site made up for all that and this year’s race was both a success in and of itself, but most importantly served as a great proof of concept – next year’s race will definitely include the cruise ship, which should make things much easier for athletes and organizers alike.

On Friday, before things got rolling with the athlete briefings I was on deck for, I had a chance to check out part of the reserve, and got to see a few of the 54 giraffes that live on the island, along with some other animals.

Race Day

First off on Saturday morning at 7 AM were the long-course competitors, who were completing a full-distance (3.8 km/ 2.4 mile swim; 180 km/ 112 mile bike; 42.2 km/ 26.2 mile run) race. A last minute change to the run course turned that from a 10-km loop to a 2.5 km loop. That meant a lot of loops, especially for the full-distance competitors, but it meant that we got to see the athletes a lot more times during the run, along with keeping the aid stations close to the race site and easy to stock. Things “cooled” down on race day, which featured a high of “only” 31 or 32 degrees Celsius on the island. Yes, that’s really hot, but not as hot as it could have been.

The large pro field competed in a half-distance race (1.9 km swim/ 96 km bike/ 21.1 km run). Highlighting the field was Sam Laidlow, but he’s still dealing with health issues, so he was there as an ambassador rather than a racer. (We’ll post our interview with Laidlow over the next day or so.) The photo above is the pro men just before their start.

Olympic bronze medalist (2016) Henri Schoeman was first out of the water, but it wasn’t long before Hungarian Olympian Csongor Lehmann, who was competing in his first long-distance race, was up in a group along with Austria’s Martin Demuth, Brit Kieran Lindars and Denmark’s Emil Holm were pushing the way at the front on the bike.

Sara Perez Sala, who swam for Spain at the 2004 Olympics and guided Susana Rodriguez to the gold medal at last year’s Paralympics (PTVI), led the women out of the water and off the bike. At one point her lead was up to just under five minutes out on the bike course.

During the second half of the bike Switzerland’s Jonathan Guisolan (who corrected me when I tried to say that he is a former pro cyclist – he just reached “a high amateur level” – but did admit that he’s going after a world six-hour record this year) powered his way to the front and a sizeable lead by the end of the bike.

While Perez Sala remained in front into T2, her lead had diminished to just two minutes thanks to a huge second-half of the bike by France’s Aurelia Boulanger. The Frenchwoman came into the race with three Challenge-Family wins and it wasn’t long before it became pretty apparent that she was on her way to a fourth.

Boulanger was in the lead by the halfway point of the run and never looked back, taking the win in 4:22:07, with Perez Sala holding on for second (4:23:18), while Lottie Lucas, a Brit who now makes the UAE her home, rounded out the podium.

Out on the run Guisolan appeared to have things under control for the win (he would cross the line in 3:54:24), but behind there was some action for the final two spots on the podium. Lehmann made the most of his long-distance debut by hanging tough for second (3:55:25), with Linda’s rounding out the top-three in 3:56:18.

Full results are available here.

In addition to the two long-distance races, there was also an Olympic-distance race that served as a qualifier for the UAE age-group team heading to Australia later this year for the world championships, along with swim, cycling and running events. All told there were 3,100 athletes registered for all the events.

Despite the logistical challenges, the race certainly achieved the goal of getting athletes to, and increasing the exposure, of the island. Adding the cruise ship for accommodation will be a game changer next year, only adding to what turned out to be a truly unique event.

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