Iron Man 70.3 Colombo, which was held on the 25th of February was Sri Lanka’s first experience of an International Triathlon in the county. 21-year-old Ashwin Dorenegama, an aspiring young tri-athlete, turned quite a few heads at the event with his show at the competition where he finished second in the 18 to 24 age category and subsequently earned qualification for the Ironman 70.3 World Championship which will be held in Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
A multiple stage competition, a triathlon requires athletes to complete three endurance disciplines, swimming, cycling and running in succession without any rest in between. Ironman is a triathlon series organized by the World Triathlon Cooperation (WTC) which consists of the Ironman 140.6 and Ironman 70.3 which is also known as the half Ironman. The Ironman 70.3 series requires athletes to complete a course of 1.9Km (1.2-mile) of swimming, 90Km cycling (56-mile) topped off with a 21.1Km (13.1-mile) run which is the exact half of the full Ironman. The Ironman series culminates each year with a world championship for which the athletes earn qualification at the precursor events. The qualification times vary from event to event with the factors such as terrain, elevation gained and lost during the course and weather along with the course conditions determine the time the athletes need to achieve for the qualification.
Ashwin who had only taken up the sport last year, managed to finish the competition clocking 4:53:16 which earned him second place in the 18 to 24 age category behind Nicola Pini of Switzerland and with it earned qualification to the world championship event in South Africa. He was also the second Sri Lankan to cross the finish line in the competition behind Suranga Nuwan Kumara of Navy who competed in the 25-29 age category and was the first Sri Lankan to earn qualification to the showpiece event in South Africa. Ashwin was ranked 30th in the overall competition while becoming the 28th Male athlete to finish line and 30th overall to complete the competition.
ThePapare.com caught up with the youngster to get some insights to how he got introduced to triathlon and his journey so far as an athlete engaged in a demanding sport. He was induced to swimming at the age of 4 by his farther Hiran Dorenegama, an avid fitness fanatic and sportsman and Ashwin excelled in the sport during his school days at the Asian International School(AIS). He was a member of the swimming team which featured current ace Sri Lankan swimmer Mathew Abeysinghe, both at AIS and Killer Whale Aquatic(KWA). He believes that all the time that he spent in the pool dropping seconds and mastering his strokes have given him an edge in the triathlon.
“Last year (2017) I took part in the spin fit sundown and right after my race I met Tisara Samarasuriya who had done a few Ironman competitions himself and was putting together a relay team to compete in the Philippines. Tisara was doing the swim with a Maldivian friend (Hussein) taking on cycling and I was to do the running part. In March 2017 we took part in the Ironman 70.3 at Subic Bay and we went to win and not just have fun there. Although we didn’t think it will be possible we managed to go there and be placed first amongst 30 odd Men’s teams” recalls Ashwin on his first experience at a triathlon competition where he was only part of a relay team. This success in his maiden event encouraged Ashwin to take the sport more seriously.
“On our flight back to Colombo from Philippines we were talking about forming Triathlon Club Colombo (TCC) and Tisara, Mithun and Chantal formed the Triathlon Club Colombo within a month and a half and in 8 months we had around 100 active members on our WhatsApp groups and about 30 athletes in both the relay and individual events. Afterwards we went with a team of 13 to take part in the Singapore International Triathlon which was an Olympic distance event so you needed to complete a 1500m swim 40km Cycling and a 10km Run. I participated in the 18 to 24 category and was placed third in the age group and 29th overall”
Read More: Sri Lankan Athletes excel at the Singapore Triathlon
With the success in his maiden individual event in Singapore at an Olympic distance event, Ashwin was contemplating focusing on Olympic distance races and trying to get into the Commonwealth Pool.
“I wanted to focus on Olympic distance races and getting into the Commonwealth Games pool but when I was thinking of going forward with that, Ironman decided to come to Sri Lanka. It was the first time it was coming to Colombo and for some reason everyone told me I should do it and I thought I will put up a relay team. I never thought I would be ready to do the distance but then Rajan (Rajan Thananayagam) who was director of Ironman Colombo told me that if I put a relay team together he will make sure to disqualify us before the race starts because he wanted me to do the whole thing alone. That’s how I ended up doing the Ironman individual race.”
Young Ashwin started training for Ironman at the end of October and had a great build up to the competition. We questioned Ashwin on how he managed to overcome the mental barriers to compete in a contestof the caliber of Ironman.
“The mental barriers started about a month before the race, I was tensed and was wondering whether I had done enough. Because a month prior to the race there is nothing much you can do to improve in such a short time and I wanted to make an impact on my first race. People told me I was foolish and I told myself that as well, so 4 to 5 days before the race I checked the athletes who were there. There were about 16 to 17 athletes , including 7 Sri Lankans, 6 Indians and a British guy and an All World Athlete (AWA). I had no idea there was an AWA in our age group so I didn’t pay any attention to him I just wanted to make sure that the rest of the Sri Lankans and the Indians were behind me.”
Despite the shaky moments where he doubted himself in the run up to the competition, Ashwin claims he was fully composed on competition day. “I was dead calm before I got into the water, I wasn’t nervous or trembling. I didn’t even have a single negative thought. It was just calm. I am really glad my mindset was like that”
Ashwin’s confidence and composure paid off as he managed to finish the 1.9Km (1.2-mile) swim in 28:33mins, the best time recorded in the age group. However, it was the next phase, cycling which was the real challenge for Ashwin. With him being a swimmer from his younger days and running coming to him naturally with his farther and family having been involved in long distance running, it was in cycling that he had to start from scratch. Having only taken up cycling only just a year ago, Ashwin believes that it’s his weakest area.
“Usually they say that when you come off the bike for your run you should feel relatively fresh, that’s what my coach told me as well but I questioned it. I was thinking to myself ‘90km of cycling and I am supposed to feel fresh?’ In Singapore when I got off the bike, where you run with the bike in transition my hamstring cramped and my quad was cramped, it was totally off I wasn’t very comfortable.
It was a different story in Colombo as all the preparation that had gone into cycling paid dividends and Ashwin was able to transition from cycling to running quite smoothly.
“Here in Colombo when I got off the bike, I felt like I had just gotten off the bed and my legs felt like they hadn’t been used at all. I was really surprised by that, I felt like a million bucks! I knew I could control the race now. Cycling wouldn’t have been in my control but when it came to the run I knew I could control how hard the guys behind me had to run and I knew I had control over the ones in front of me because they would see me coming for them.”
Having established tough standards for himself, he is still not happy with his performance on the bike as he feels that there is a lot of room for development in that area.
“I have improved a lot throughout the last year on cycling but there is so much more I have to improve on. I know I can easily shave off 30 minutes from the time I did in Colombo, provided I work on my bike. My training program for Ironman Colombo was more cycling specific, I did 5 sessions of cycling a week compared to 3 sessions of running and swimming”
It is right to say that the young Sri Lankan was most dominant in the final phase of his race where he was blitzing through the run. We asked him whether being familiar with the conditions and the terrain aided him in his running and to finish strong.
“Well, yes and no. Yes because we did get to do the course and I was familiar and accustomed with the heat and the weather. No because I never knew it would be as bad as it was inside the port. In the Ironman World Championship, which is in Hawaii there is a section during the marathon which is called the energy lab where you run in and it just sucks the energy out of you, we had something similar here and most of the foreign competitors said it was the energy lab of Asia. Inside the port the breakwater is 20 to 5 feet high and its pretty much an oven, there is no greenery, no shade it’s just you, the concrete and the heat which sucks you out.”
He went onto relate a story of a fellow Sri Lankan who he met during the run and who he believes deserves a lot of appreciation for keeping his spirits high during the difficult passage of running.
“So, on my run within the first 5km I encountered a Sri Lankan contestant who was from either Sri Lanka Army or Airforce who caught up to me from the back as he was chasing Nuwan Kumara who was the first Sri Lankan to finish the competition. I like to talk to athletes during the run, I like to get to know something about them so I spoke to him. His name was either Lakshman or Lakshan. We had a conversation about our whereabouts and he said, ‘let’s run together’ and he told me that he was in pursuit of Nuwan and wanted to catch him. This was ideal for me as I also wanted to close the gap in so the two of us worked together. We paced ourselves, we did some surges here and there, dropped our pace, increased when needed so we slowed down for about 500m and then increase the speed for 1.5km.
“We were playing around in the middle of the course and we had the energy to do it because both of us were enjoying it. Because of him, I finished the first part up to 16 to 17km really fast and I owe it to him for pushing me through and keeping me company. I love the company when I run. I guess I have to get used to the solitude but this guy kept me going during the race and I owe it to him.”
The young tri-athlete baffled everyone and himself as he managed to not only finish second in the demanding event but also earned qualification to the World Championship event by completing the event under 5 hours. With this he became the youngest Sri Lankan and one of the only two Sri Lankans ever to have earned qualification to Ironman World Championships.
We asked Ashwin how he had built up so much confidence at such a young age,
“I took part in the LSR Colombo full marathon in 2016, I trained 6 months for it and ran about 150km a week. I had run the LSR half marathon the year earlier and the reason for me to run the full marathon was entirely because of my father. He is the one who pushed me and said you have to do the full marathon next year. I completed the Full marathon because my dad was by my side pushing me, even after finishing the half marathon himself. Although I was way too young to be running a full marathon, after completing LSR I knew if I could finish a marathon I could take on anything. A lot of people even told me that the Ironman 70.3 (Half Ironman) doesn’t hurt as much as the Full Marathon and I think doing that at the age of 19 really did wonders for my confidence and self-belief”
It is evident that Ashwin’s father Hiran Doranegama has had enormous influence on him gravitating to a sport that requires a high level of endurance and mental resolve. We asked Ashwin how big a part his father has played..
“Competition is always there at home on who is fitter and stronger, he lifts more than me but I am fitter than him…. but age wise when you take his age and compare with mine he is really fit. When I was 12 /13 (years) I used to go for runs with him and he would race me on the last bit and beat me but now it’s not the case anymore. He is my role model, I look up to him and get advice from him. If there is anything wrong with my body he is the first person I talk to and then I consult the physio because he knows a lot. He knows my body and I can trust his judgement. I am motivated around him. I will not be here today without my coach Rajan Thananayagam who guided me and groomed me to the athlete I am today in merely 6 to 7 months. I also need to thank my mother who works tirelessly to make sure I am fed properly day in day out and made sure I got my sleep properly. My girlfriend has to shoulder the daunting task of waking me up and if not for her i would have missed training. Thank you to all members of TCC for keeping me motivated through out training and specially on the race day ”
At merely 21 years of age Ashwin has impressed everyone with his grit in taking on a demanding sport and managing to earn an international victory despite having minimum exposure. The young athlete is determined to inspire a new generation of triathletes from Sri Lanka who he believes have the ability to challenge the world. Ashwin will start prepping for the World Championship after a few months of recovery and will require all the support he can get in order to finance what is quite an expensive sport to be a part of. We congratulate the ambitious young man who has set his sights not only on conquering Ironman but on representing the country at the Olympics in the triathlon.
