And before the tenth, on Sunday the ninth - the eighth annual Lionman Triathlon Competition was staged. For the past three years, at the individual male elite level, the event has been dominated by the Choto brothers -, all of them with incredible talent endurance and strength. But this year, they came under heavy challenge from a visiting Guatemalan contingent. These are dedicated tri-athletes who dominated a race in Belize in November of last year. How would they fare against the Chotos? Well we wouldn't find out because only defending champ Jose Choto participated as his brothers were involved in a cycling event in the north. Here's how it went.
Jules Vasquez Reporting,
At 8 o'clock the competitors lined up for their swim while a good crowd of fans and onlookers lined the Sandlighter's Promenade to see them off. And at 20 past they were off for a.93 mile swim around the rectangular course. At the end of one lap, Guatemalan Jose Xol had already distanced himself from the competition. He was alone and comfortably ahead. After veering off course briefly, he kept a lead that he would not relinquish. Defending champion Jose Choto was minutes behind and by the time Xol finished a swim, ran to the transition point and got on his bike, that deficit would only increase. In fact it would be another four minutes before Choto was out of the water. When he took the road, there were already three Guatemalans in front of him for the 24 mile ride, spread out across 6 laps from the Marine Parade roundabout to the SJC entrance. For the women, Jamie Lee Usher was the first out of the water and the first on the bike. Defending champion Shalini Zabaneh was a few minutes behind while three time Masters champ Jim Scott was right with her. Already on the road, Xol kept the pace to maintain his lead while number one, Jose Choto tried to make up the four minute plus gap on his specialty which is the ride. After two laps, defending female champ Shalini Zabenah had caught up to last year's second place finisher Jamie Lee Usher. Comfortable, Zabaneh would sit on Usher's wheel right up to the end of the ride. Choto didn't have it so easy. He was riding hard to close the time deficit and he did, narrowing Xol's lead by almost two minutes. But at the end of the ride going into the run, Xol had a three minute advantage and Choto who had pulled in to second place had to try and make up the time over the 6.2 mile run under a blazing sun hot. For the women, Usher and Zabaneh finished their ride at the same time, still along with master's champ Jim Scott. But Zabaneh was quicker on the transition and would get out on the run first and never look back. Choto's best event is the ride and he lost precious time on the run as another Guatemalan, Francisco Lima, overtook him. At the finish line Xol was unchallenged and the resident of Peten raised the Guatemalan flag proudly as he strode to victory.
Jose Xol, First Place, Male & Overall
"The race was difficult. We trained very hard. We thank God we got the results we wanted. We're going to Peten with a victory. I am very good at swimming and running, that's where I recovered my time and thank God I won."
Question: Is the course more difficult in Guatemala?
Jose Xol,
"I suppose its more demanding to be training in Guatemala having mountains so yes because the races are very difficult because there are lots of us. There it is difficult swimming in the water because it is very choppy and also the saltwater affects your breathing."
Lima, another Guatemalan finished second but was fifteen minutes behind Xol. Jose Choto was third. He came in sixteen minutes and forty seconds behind Xol and almost seven minutes off his winning time from last year. Still he was the first Belizean.
Jose Choto, Second Place, Male & Overall
"It was really tough."
Reuben Morales, Love FM
"Your team is not here with you today, you had to run it alone, only Wilmot Simmons giving you some water. The Guatemalans had a strong team, they had good servicing, hydrated and all of that. It's a rough one for you I guess."
Jose Choto,
"Yes I had a good service team but we had some problems with the Cayo river with the bad weather before coming here so the river was flooded and I couldn't swim good enough, couldn't run good enough so I just had to settle for what came."
Jules Vasquez,
Now these guys are professional tri-athletes, are you all working towards that level?
Jose Choto,
"No I think this is my last Lion man because I have to do a lot of work and deal with cycling so I think I will have much time to train."
Jules Vasquez,
If you had your three brothers here you think you would have had a better outcome?
Jose Choto,
"Because we encourage one another."
Shalini Zabaneh was the second Belizean - male or female - to finish the race. She placed sixth overall and took a full fourteen minutes off her time in last year's race.
Shalini Zabaneh, first Place, Female
"This is my third time."
Reuben Morales,
"And now you seem to have more competition than before."
Shalini Zabaneh,
"Yes definitely and I just want to encourage more people because it is so small and it is just a good event. It puts you in shape and teaches discipline and dedication and that's all it takes."
Reuben Morales,
"Last year before you said went off training and you got caught in a morass and you were in a lot of trouble after that but this time I guess that didn't happen."
Shalini Zabaneh,
"No."
Reuben Morales,
"So how was the training?"
Shalini Zabaneh,
"Good, hard. I had someone helping me in the States so it keeps me knowing what to do, how to train and that's very important."
Jules Vasquez,
Do you intend to compete internationally?
Shalini Zabaneh,
"I am not sure if I am ready for international events. I will try, maybe the smaller ones."
Jules Vasquez,
How does it feel to have physical dominance not only over your own sex, but you also came in before a lot of men.
Shalini Zabaneh,
"Very good."
Jamie Lee Usher, Second Place, Female
"I did my best out there. I pushed myself on the ride and I came out a little heavy on the gears but in the end I just made sure I kept on moving for the run and..."
James Adderley, News 5
"When did you concede the pace to Shalini?"
Jamie Lee Usher,
"The race? I think I just watched her, I watched her go with Jim and I said I will just keep my pace as it is, 6 miles. So at the first mile you can't really tell the kind of condition the person in front of you is in."
James Adderley,
"Now you have a very busy schedule. You want to tell us about the kind of time you put in to this event?"
Jamie Lee Usher,
"In the end it was about 6 hours probably a day on my heaviest days and probably about two hours on my shortest days for the last month."
And while Usher trained hard and took thirteen minutes off last year's time, Jim Scott, the four time Master's Champ was circumspect about victory.
Jim Scott, Masters Champion,
"It is not about victory, it's about the people. The crazy people who do it, the crazy family members that support us, and those people on the street that sit there and wonder why we are so crazy to do it."
Jules Vasquez,
So what was the hardest part for you?
Jim Scott,
"Honestly it was equal. I paced myself on this race. I tried not to kill myself because I knew it would have been a very tough swim for me. Its just fun being out there."
And as the trophies were handed out, event founder Beep Phillips said the sport is moving ahead.
Efrain Beep Phillips, founder "Lion Man"
"I feel like Belize has a good future for triathlon because we have good swimming area, we have good terrain for all the different sports so later on we can maybe reach higher."
Xol says he's rated among the top 5 tri-athletes in his country and regularly competes in events with double the in Belize's Lionman event. For a list of the prizes and full results you can check on the Lionman website. We should also mention that apart from the male and female individual races, there was also a relay triathlon. First in that was claimed by Team Shrug Your Shoulders, second Prestige Auto Sales, and third, Team Lake.
