Destination sports

LOCATED IN Western Thailand on the border with Myanmar, Kanchanaburi is already known to tourists for its rich culture and long history. Now it’s about to become an important sporting destination too as it plays host next month to a new triathlon organised by the global brand Challenge Family.

“This is the first time that Kanchanaburi has been chosen for a world-famous triathlon event,” says Sukrita Aram, an executive of TAB Agency, the new host of the competition. The international event was previously organised in Phuket until the contract with Challenge Family expired last year.

“Kanchanaburi is an excellent choice. Most triathlons are held near the sea to accommodate the swimming but here we have both reservoirs and lakes. We wanted a landlocked province that also boasted interesting attractions and Kanchanaburi came out tops. It has the Srinagarind Dam on the Kwae Yai River in Si Sawat district, which is perfect for the swimming. It’s a 40 metres tall and 610 metres long embankment dam with a reservoir capacity of 7.47 billion cubic metres. The area surrounding the dam is beautiful, with the mountains and the hills suitable for a challenging cycling and running course.”

The Triathlon Challenge Kanchanaburi offers both half distance and Olympic distance. The half distance is 1.9km of swimming in a triangle shape in the Srinagarind Dam, 90km cycling on Si Sawat Road and a 21km run around the dam. Olympic distance is 1.5km of swimming, 50km of cycling and 10.5km of running.

“Si Sawat Road is lined with many interesting tourist attractions including Lake Heaven, which is sometimes called ‘Maldives in Thailand’.|It is a peaceful place with clear water and breathtaking mountain scenery. It really is like heaven on water,” Sukrita continues. 

“The road will be blocked to traffic during the competition but we are doing everything we can to minimise the effect on the local people. Kanchanaburi has plenty of hotels but already those near the dam are booked up. However, we have made arrangements with other hotels to ensure all the athletes can be accommodated. We have also informed all the hotels to serve breakfast very early in the morning.” 

Some 1,000 athletes are expected to take part in the triathlon, 30 per cent of them confirmed professionals such as Mitchell Paul Robins and Jessica Fleming.

“The number of athletes is fixed based on the transition area of the dam, As this is the first race at the Srinagarind Dam, many top triathloners want to take part. This course is also a qualifying event for the world championship and the top six in each age group will go on to participate in the World Challenge Championship in Slovakia next year,” says the young executive.

The triathlon, which takes place over the October 22-23 weekend, offers total prize money of more than B1 million. 

And the triathlon is not the only major event to be taking place in Kanchanaburi in the next couple of months. Also coming up is the “FB River Kwai Half Marathon Thailand Championship” on October 16 and “The River Kwai Bridge Expo” from November 25 to December 7.

“As an excellent location full of rich history and offering a wide range of hospitality services, restaurants, wellness centre and good transportation, Kanchanaburi has the potential to be a leading destination for world-class sporting events. For the last three months, the province has been promoting its sport tourism strategy in an attempt to boost the local economy. We are expecting a 30-per-cent increase in visitors and revenue of more than Bt6.5 million, an improvement of 10 per cent over the same period of last year. We strongly believe that our sports strategy will result in sustainable development for Kanchanaburi in the long term,” says Governor Sak Somboonto. 

“Kanchanaburi is near Bangkok but far away enough to be a tourist attraction in its own right, not least because at 19,483 square kilometres, it’s the largest province in western Thailand. It takes nearly three-and-a-half hours to get from Kanchanaburi town to the Mon Bridge in Sangkhlaburi District and one day to reach the border. It also has a cool season on par with Chiang Mai.”

Participants in the FB River Kwai Half Marathon Thailand Championship will be running part of the distance on railroad sleepers while taking in the beautiful nature and riverscape of the Kwai. The bridge was constructed in 1942 during the Second World War.

“The race has three distances: a fun run of 6.5km, a mini marathon of 10.5km, and the half marathon of 21.5km. We are expecting a large turn out for the fun run and are preparing 2,000 tents to serve the runners and their families,” says Nawaphat Nontanakeat, director of the Sports Authority of Thailand Kanchanaburi.

Extra days and additional sound and light shows have been added to the River Kwai Bridge Festival to accommodate the ever-growing number of foreign and local tourists who turn out for the event, says Mathaneeya Maksomboon, a member of the public relations committee for Kanchanaburi events.

“We will also be telling the story of the River Kwai in four languages – Thai, English, Japanese and Chinese – and using a state-of-the-art mapping technique.

“And this year, the elderly storyteller will be replaced by Kittikorn “Fuse” Phopee who starred in “Hak Lin Chang” on Channel 7 and Nantiya Sriubon, who appeared in “Boonpong” on Thai PBS in 2013.”

 

Sign Up Today

- Registration for the River Kwai Half Marathon is open until Wednesday. Visit www.ThaiTicketMajor.com.

- “Triathlon Challenge Kanchanaburi” is accepting registration at http://challenge-thailand.com/en/ through October 15.

- The River Kwai Bridge Festival runs from November 25 to December 7.