Raghul Trekker, Meenakshi emerge winners

Raghul Trekker and Meenakshi Gopinathan emerged winners in the men's and women's triathlon respectively in the Covelong Point Challenge, an obstacle course race, held at nearby Kovalam.
Paolo Iovacchini and Sekhar finished second in the men's triathlon. In the women's event, Vilassini and Ambika Ratnakumar took the second and third places.
The obstacle course race saw over 200 take part with Devrath Vijay taking top spot followed by S Anandanam and Michael. The women's event was won by Sanjana George, while Mallika Fernandes and Aishwarya Chezhiyan took the second and third places.
The meet was organised on Sunday by Wild Warrior, which has former India tennis star Somdev Devvarman and Vikram Menon as co-founders.

As part of the challenge, a sprint triathlon (ocean swim, bike, run), sprint duathlon (run, bike, run), both individual and team, a 5K run and one-km beach side obstacle course race were organised.
Menon was happy with the response to the meet and said the aim was to popularise the sport in the country.

"Obstacle course races are slowly gaining popularity as a serious sport around the globe. In Asia and especially India, it is at a very nascent stage. We want to make this sport more mainstream and accessible to our community with these events," he added.
On his part, Devvarman said he had tried his hand at obstacle races and added they could go a long way in helping one stay fit.

"I have tried my hand at obstacle races and find it to be a good way to stay fit," he added.
The former Davis Cup player also said he would recommend obstacle races for tennis players to help increase endurance.
"I will definitely recommend this (obstacle races) to tennis players," he said.
He was delighted to see the interest for the event and said, "we received a great response from the city for our event. We saw participants aged 18 years old, right up till participants that were 56 years of age.