Organisers of the Sun City Triathlon Festival say that they hope the event will be of benefit to the hospitality industry in the Portmore community.

The fourth staging of the event takes place on Saturday, March 16 at 6:30 am and starts at Waves Beach in Hellshire, Portmore, St Catherine. Race official Dayne Wright says that one of the reasons he is looking forward to the event is because patrons, who he expects to travel from across the island as well as the Diaspora, will bring economic activity to the area.

“Sports tourism is something that the Government is looking at and something we’re looking at as well,” he said. “The bed and breakfast industry in Hellshire can benefit from this. So we’re looking at how much we can pull people in. So that’s one of the reasons why we tend to focus on some of the things we do – the safety, a fun event, and something wholesome for the family.”

Wright says he has seen a steady growth in participation in the previous three years, with 60 competitors becoming 95, then 120 last year. This year, he hopes for an even larger entry list.

“We want to beat the numbers we had last year,” he said. “Initially, we were looking at 150, but this year we want anywhere around 160. But we consider our event a success if we’re able to pull anywhere between 80 and 130.”

The festival will consist of a triathlon in which competitors will swim, bike, and walk or run; a duathlon, which has a run, ride, run format; an aquathlon for persons who do not have a bicycle but want to swim and run; and an aquabike event for persons who want to swim and ride. Each section has subdivisions with various distances and age groups.

Wright is proud of the course for the races, describing it as a “safe space” and scenic and challenging for each participant.

“The ride goes through the Hellshire community,” he said. “For the longer distances, like the 20k, mountain bikes, and road bikes, go through there, then the shorter events stay as close to Waves as we can, in the Seafort community.

“The run goes from Waves, past Fort Clarence roundabout, out into Hellshire, comes back to Fort Clarence, Waves, does a double loop for the 5k, and a single loop for the 2.5k.

“What a lot of persons are enthralled by is the beautiful scenery in the Hellshire area. Some people don’t know about it, but the moment they jump on the bicycle and they start riding down and they’re able to overlook that lovely deep blue sea — a lot of people’s breaths are taken. They’re awed by it. That’s one of the reasons why we tend to get a lot of people coming back. What you can do with the event is what is available to you in terms of the geography of the terrain. But we try to make changes so people who would’ve been with us from year one will not be bored. Every year we try to do something a little different just to keep the brain guessing. We tend to spice it up a little bit.”

Wright says the breakdown of categories means everyone can participate, even if they have physical challenges, such as sickle cell disease, which the event aims to fight by raising funds and awareness.

“We’ve always focused on the Sickle Cell Support Club,” he said. “Last year we had one person turn out and he actually has it. It’s something that they are not supposed to be able to do because of the physical restrictions that imposes. This is something that we hope that persons who have any kind of limitations may still come out and do. We’ve done events internationally where we’ve seen triple amputees come out and do the event just the same.”

Registration closes on March 12 and costs $6,000, depending on the category.