IRONMAN and IRONKIDS

IRONMAN 70.3 Colombo took place on Sunday the 25th of February and was preceded by an IRONKIDS event on Saturday the 24th.

The IRONKIDS event on the 24th which was a fun run was the IRONKIDS event in Sri Lanka following the IRONKIDS Aquathlon which took place in Seenigama (at the Foundation of Goodness Sports Academy) last year with the participation of 135 rural kids.

500 children from Sri Lanka and around the world participated in the fun run on the 24th, with the children aged between 5 – 11 years grouped in to four categories.

Foundation of Goodness partnered with IRONMAN for this event along with ProAm Serendib and Sponsor Shangri-La Colombo. The IRONKIDS event took place along the Galle Face Green with 500m, 1km, 1.5 km and 2 km distances for the different age groups.

10 free entries were given to the Foundation of Goodness to encourage rural Sri Lankan children to participate along with the international and more urban participants, and 10 excited and talented young kids from Seenigama travelled to Colombo to participate.

There were no winners or losers in the events and every child received a special participation medal for their efforts.

On the following day was the IRONMAN 70.3 Colombo event with over 800 international participants and four groups from FoG entered the team events. The groups were made up of three mixed teams (two males and one female) and one all male team combining contestants from the North, South, East and West of Sri Lanka named Unity Team I, II, III and IV, form among whom the all-male team made up of participants from Batticaloa, Jaffna and Colombo secured the 1st runner up position. Two others from the FoG Sports Academy also participated in the individual events with FoG triathlete Lakruwan Wijesiri coming in 4th in his category.

At the end of the even, there were many well-wishers commending the Unity Team who came forward with their desire to help such talented rural athletes to succeed and FoG supporter Shazna Muzammil who was a participant of the event even went so far as to donated her professional racing bike to FoG contestant Dinoraj from Sittandy, Batticaloa (East).

Events such as these are a great opportunity for our rural beneficiaries to gain a lot of exposure to international events of such renown and we are extremely fortunate to have been able to play a role in such an amazing opportunity for Sri Lanka.

06th March 2018