Kampar, Malaysia, July 13, 2024: Two starts and two podium finishes. A star is in the making in Korean Park Seo-eun who finished second in the girl’s race in the Asian Triathlon Junior Cup on Saturday, July 13.
Theory was given a back seat at the Olympic Council of Asia World Triathlon/Asian Triathlon Youth Development Camp in Kampar as officials decided to use the Asian Triathlon Junior Cup as a means to test the young athletes under their charge.
This meant the boys and girls coming up against more experienced athletes in Asia, those who have been participating in elite events for a couple of years or more.
And Seoul teenager Park was not overawed as she held her own against girls older and more experienced than her, and finished behind winner Kira Ellis of the Philippines, who had arrived fresh from a training and competition stint in Europe.
“I’m very pleased with my performance and felt good out there,” said Park after finishing the 750 metre swim, 20 kilometre bike and 5 km run course strongly.
Her coach Park Dae-young was overjoyed. “This is only her second start in an elite event in her career, and her second podium finish. This is remarkable and shows she has talent,” he said.
Park’s other podium finish came last November when she finished third in the Asian Triathlon Youth Championships in Hong Kong.
A total of 33 girls started the course at the scenic Tunku Abdul Rahman University in Kampar. More than half of them were elite juniors from across Asia, and not part of OCA’s residential camp.
“We planned this camp to coincide with this race so as to give our guys some race experience. The goal today was simply to finish the race. The focus was on individual performance rather than results,” said Vicent Beltran, World Triathlon development officer.
In the boy’s event, none of Beltran’s charges were able to finish in the top five. The starting field was 70 and the race was dominated by a powerful junior elite squad from Hong Kong, who took first and third place, while a Kazakh grabbed second place.
Beltran explained: “This race is amongst the highest level of competition at the junior elite level. There is nothing bigger than this race and it was important for our guys to compete against such opposition. Most of our athletes were taking part for the first time and for them to finish the race is very good.”
In Park’s case, not only did she finish, she also climbed the podium. “It’s a superb performance,” Beltran added.
