Tinman Release
Saturday, December 24, 2011
One of the Caribbean's most successful triathletes has now been added to the growing list of high profile names slated for the Digicel Wadadli Tinman on January 29th 2012.
St. Kitts & Nevis star Rasta triathlete Reginald "Reggie"' Douglas will now join Argentina's Claudio Delpueche in focusing the attention of the world's triathlon community on Antigua and Barbuda for its maiden half-iron distance triathlon.
The 34-year old Reggie is a five time national champion, four time OECS champion, several times sportsman of the year and has competed at both the Ironman 70.3 World Championship and Cycling World Championships.
In a sport where the last two world champions won at the age of 38, Reggie is just entering the prime of his career and plans to use the Digicel Wadadli Tinman as the start of what he plans on making his most successful season yet.
"Next year is looking like a very positive year for me sponsor wise so next year I will be doing a lot more travelling and the Tinman is my first event"' Douglas said.
Reggie has spent several years promoting St. Kitts & Nevis at different international races that he has attended and now he hopes to bring some of the international spotlight to the island he considers his second home.
"During my adventure at the World Championship when I told people I am from Nevis and I tell them how big is the island some of the guys staying in the hotel with us were laughing at us but when they see me up there with them on the bike they stop laughing,"' Douglas said.
"My whole family is from Antigua so Antigua is more like my second home, I was only born in Nevis,"' Douglas added.
The accomplished triathlete also highlighted the importance of the Digicel Wadadli Tinman in inspiring future triathletes from the region.
"It's good to know that there is such an event close by in the neighbourhood and we need to see more of these events around the Caribbean that will be easy to get to and you don't have to travel all the way to the US"' Douglas said.
The 34-year old triathlete added there is a untold potential for developing future world beaters in the sport and offered the story of his humble beginnings in the sport as an example.
"As a young boy I grew up on the beach so I always could have swim and I actually started out as a mountain biker and there used to be an event called the Caribbean Cup"_.but then mountain biking started to drizzle out,"' Douglas recalled.
"We heard over in St. Kitts they were having a triathlon. I knew nothing about it"_just two of us in the team could swim, but not with the technique and everything,"' Douglas said. "The guys would beat us out of the water but we found we would catch up on the bike and I used to be a long distance runner in school so all three came together and I just stuck with it and it took me a lot of places,"' Douglas said.
Reggie's best performance came in 2007 for the second time he attempted the St. Croix half-ironman, where out of a field of more than 1,000 of the best competitors from across the planet he placed 8th in his age group and 20th overall with a time of 5 hours 15 minutes qualifying him for the Ironman 70.3 World Championships.
The Digicel Wadadli Tinman is a unique sporting challenge where competitors in four sports; swimming, cycling, running and triathlon compete over a gruelling 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile cycle and 13.1 mile run on January 29th 2012.
The Digicel Wadadli Tinman is made possible by support from its sponsors; Digicel, the Observer Media Group, the American University of Antigua (AUA), Xtreme Health and Fitness, Cedars Pottery and Adventure Antigua. This event is hosted by the Wadadli Triathlon Club and endorsed by the Antigua and Barbuda Triathlon (ABTRI) Association and Ministry of Sports.
