The Mauritius Triathlon Federation will host the final ITU African Triathlon Cup of 2009 this Saturday, 19 December.

The event takes place at the world famous Le Morine Heritage Park with its azure skies, crystal-clear seas and white sand that stretch out into the Indian Ocean.

Near perfect racing conditions are expected with air temperatures around 28oC, and a light breeze to help keep the athletes cool.  The elite event is a 2 lap swim, 3 lap bike and 2 lap Olympic distance competition. 

In the women’s event, hometown hero Fabienne Aline St Louis (photo), hot off an 11th place finish at the recent ITU Huatulco Triathlon World Cup event, is one of the favoured, alone with 2008 Olympian Mari Rabie of South Africa.  Andrea Steyn, also of South African is expected to challenge for the podium.

On the men’s side, David Hauss of France goes into the event as the top ranked triathlete and is definitely favoured to win.  Challenging Hauss for the top step on the podium will be Omar Tayara who represented Syria in the Beijing Olympic Games Triathon, as well as Wikus Weber of South Africa.  Spanish team-mates Ramon Ejeda and Daniel Rodriguez could upset things as they are relatively unknown.  The hometown hopeful must be Valery de Falbaire, who is likely to exit the water first.

The elite men will start at 15h30 with the elite women at 15h40.  Shorter distanced events are also planned earlier in the day for U11, U13, U15, U17 and U19 athlete.

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