Muscat Festival Triathlon on February 5

Muscat: Even as the Muscat Municipality is gearing up for the much-looked-forward to event — Muscat Festival, the Oman Triathlon Team is preparing to host the Festival Triathlon.
The popular 'swim, cycle and run' competition will once again be held during the ever growing Muscat Festival and this year it will take place on February 5 at Azaiba beach.
According to Oman Triathlon Team's Suleiman Al Alawi, also an experienced triathlete who represented Oman at various international competitions, the event received good response last year and the organisers are expecting the same this time around.
"Last year it was a great success with the participation of around 30 athletes. We are hoping to have more participants this year, we are expecting the number to go up to 50 at the least," he said.
Giving details of the competition, he said: "We will have competitions in two distances — in sprint and Olympic distances."
The sprint competition includes 750m swim, 22kms bike and 5km run sections while the Olympic event will comprise 1,500m swim, 42km bike and 19km run.
Like some of Muscat Triathlon Team's previous events, the Festival event too will be organised in Azaiba but there will be a change in the route.
The event will start off Azaiba Beach/Jetty Car Park and the bike section taking the competitors along the 18th November Street to The Wave, Muscat and back. The run course is along the Azaiba beach road which the organisers described as 'reasonably safe'.
The participants can also take part in just one or two events of the triathlon.
Interested athletes may register their entries at the venue from 6.00 to 6.45 a.m. on the day of the event. The entry fee is OMR 2. The race will start at 7.00 a.m.