Samui Triathlon more than a competition

A good example was the Samui Triathlon competition held for the second year last month. More than 200 competitors from 22 countries took part in the gruelling 4km swim, 122.65km cycle ride and 30km run. 

The event was followed by a global TV audience via Euro Sport, Sports Plus and TV5 Monde and local channels. Hence, the jewel crown of the Thai Gulf was seen by spectators around the world.

The good news is Thailand may build its own Ironman team in the future.

Singha Corporation, which financially supports many different kinds of sport, agreed to become the global sponsor of TBB, the world’s premiere triathlon team. They are also eyeing setting up a TBB Thailand team to compete in international events.

TBB was founded in 2007 in Phuket by former Dutch banker-turned-triathlon team manager Alex Bok and world-renowned Australian coach Brett Sutton.

TBB, now one of the premier teams, has seven national teams – US, UK, Germany, Japan, Philippines, Mexico, and Netherlands.

I met Bok in Samui where his team took part in the triathlon for the second year. He said the team was founded with the mission of providing hope and opportunity to people and inspiring them.

“It’s about participation and completing but not competing. Of course, we love to produce champions. If you finish an Ironman, that’s an achievement but more important is how to teach them to live with discipline and how to deal with disappointment when you lose,” he said.

The one-year-contract of Singha and TBB will allow the Singha logo to appear on athletes’ jerseys of five teams, excluding Philippines and Mexico, which have other companies as country sponsors.

Under the contract, Bok plans to do a cookie cutter. He explained that first he will provide six world-class athletes to train six scholared Thai athletes for six months a year in Thailand. Another plan is to create a youth development project to train Thai kids to become triathletes.

“The ultimate goal [of this partnership] is to train Thai triathletes to go to the Olympics or become the first Thai ever to win an Ironman championship. I want to create three Paradorn [Srichaphan, former world No 9 tennis player] of the triathletes. It’s my dream,” Bok, who has lived in Thailand since 2009, said.  Perhaps, next year we may agree to set up TBB Thailand team with Singha as country title sponsor, Bok said.

In his view, triathlon is booming and becoming the new golf of sport. More executives are shifting from playing golf to riding a bike, he said. According to Bok in 2010, 800,000 people of the 320 million US population took part in a triathlon. A year later, the number had risen to 1.1 million, more than doubling to 2.3 million last year. 

The sport has become more popular because those people live more healthily, stay slim and have lower medical bills, he said.

“If we can raise the number of Thais to participate in triathlon from a few thousands now to only one per cent of the 65 million Thai population, or 650,000 people, that would be good,” he said.