The TBA team has won first place in the TriTogether Relay Long Distance event at the World Triathlon Championship on September 12 in Almere, the Netherlands.

 

Manasse Hutte, Sander van Dijk and Mark Veenstra — who bravely represented TBA Group for the first time at this event - set a personal record of eight hours and 40 minutes and thus, successfully beating the time set by a rivalling team in 2019 of nine hours and one minute.

 

The TBA team's goal was to beat their rival team’s previous record of nine hours and one minute. The race started at 8:10am, where Mark started swimming the 3.8km course. Although he could not find a good draft, he remained focused and resilient during the swim, completing the allocated distance in one hour and one minute.

 

“To achieve my goal of swimming in an hour, I added bi-weekly swimming training to my normal workout routine to improve my swimming technique,” said Mark.

 

 

Following Mark, Manasse started cycling his 180km course. He zoomed through at an average speed of 38.6km/h, completing the course in four hours and 38 minutes.

 

 

“He was so fast, I couldn’t catch him on camera,” said Mark.

 

Sander ran the 42.2km course at an impressive run time of approximately two hours and 55 minutes, bringing the race to an end and ranking first.

 

The team said a large part of their preparation had been training.

 

“Since we decided to participate in the relay triathlon representing TBA, I have ridden around 20,000km,” Manasse said.

 

 

Sander implemented training almost every day. “Although my training duration was not sufficient for long distance challenges, my body was adjusting to the high frequency of exercise,” he said.

 

Manasse has a history of being an active sportsman but had “spent the last five years in steady hibernation.”

 

“Having an ambitious goal has always been an important condition for me to do sports, and that’s what was missing. When the triathlon was announced my attention was immediately grabbed - 180km of solo cycling is exactly my cup of tea.

 

“I’ve always been a huge fan of triathlons - apart from my hatred for running and swimming - but having two other people to do the swimming and running part was the perfect solution,” added Manasse.

 

TBA team has completed a total distance of 225.4km to reach the finish line.

 

The triathlon was initially scheduled to take place in 2020, but the pandemic caused a delay in the start of the race. The team had been consistently training to maintain their physical state for the triathlon over the course of the delay, which has paid off by winning the first spot on the podium.

 

We thank Manasse, Mark and Sander for representing TBA Group at the second oldest triathlon race in the world and for their commitment to the process, and we congratulate them on the outstanding results achieved in the race!

 

The Winning Team

 

 

The times to beat:

 

Course track	Distance to complete	Time to beat
Swim	3.8 km	01:02:59
Bike	180 km	04:58:07
Run	42.2 km	02:55:54

 

The times achieved in September 2021:

 

Course track	Distance completed	Time realised
Swim	3.8 km	01:01:56
Bike	180 km	04:38:46
Run	42.2 km	02:55:06