After dedicating three months to preparing for the African Games in Morocco, Egyptian triathlete, Khalil Mohamed must have been confident of his medal chances, but during competition an unforeseen circumstance shattered his dream.
“In the beginning, everything was good, the swimming was great, I didn’t face any difficulties. But when I exited to take my bike I found that one of my bike wheels was broken, so I decided to not continue the competition,” an angry and disappointed Mohamed told AIPS. “I should have changed that broken wheel at the wheel station, but it’s 5 kilometers away from here so I decided to stop.”
Abdellah El Rahmouni, who is responsible for transition in the Triathlon competition, hailed the organization of the competition. “Everything was fine, the organization of the competition was excellent, everything went well.”
Then regarding Mohamed’s unfortunate situation, he explained to AIPS that every competitor is responsible for their belongings. “It’s the competitor’s responsibility to check his bike before the competition starts, he took the decision to not finish the competition. The organizers are not responsible for this because no one is allowed to touch the competitors’ bikes before or during the competition. I can confirm that nobody touched any bike.”
Mohamed’s coach echoed Abdellah’s thoughts: “You know sometimes problems happen, but I think that Mohamed should have checked out his bike before the competition started. Actually, he should have been 100% certain that everything was alright.
“Every competitor is responsible for his own bike and all his equipment, because nobody can help during the competition, even if it is a competitor from the same country. If someone had tried to help him both of the competitors would have been eliminated. I think Mohamed Khalil was supposed to go to wheel station, fix the problem and continue with the competition. I really don’t know why he decided to stop!”
The coach believes Mohamed could have made the top five if not for the bike problem because “he was well trained”. He however expressed delight in the success of another Egyptian, Elsalamoney Basmla, who won the gold medal in women’s event. “We haven’t shown all our capabilities and skills yet, we’ll continue training and the best is yet to come,” he boasted.
He also praised the organization of the competition saying: “The volunteers, referees and all the staff are doing a very good job.” The coach revealed that the next goal for the Egyptian triathlon team is to win the 2019 Luxor ATU Sprint Duathlon African Championships & Pan Arab Championships that will be held in Egypt in October.
