The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

REGISTRATION officially opened yesterday for the second edition of the Great Abaco Family Fitness Weekend, an event organisers expect to exceed the success of their initial effort last year.  

Registration details are available at the event website www.GAFFW.com or by contacting the Ministry of Tourism in Marsh Harbour, Abaco.

Hosted the weekend of March 22-24 at Treasure Cay Beach, Marina, & Golf Resort, it includes a one-mile open water swim on Friday, a sprint and Olympic triathlon on Saturday followed by a kids’ one-mile run, and a 5k/10k fun run/walk on Sunday.

Planning for the second instance of the event has been taking place over the past year and the organisers look forward to having a larger, fun-filled, family-oriented event. 

Online registration has begun with entrants locally from Freeport and internationally from South Carolina.  

The Bahamas Ministry of Tourism, Treasure Cay Resort & Marina, and Damianos/Sotheby’s International Realty have again joined as the main sponsors.  

In its inaugural year, the Great Abaco Family Fitness Weekend, with a full slate of events for athletes and their families, set the tone for the success of future editions of the event. 

The three-day series of events featured over 70 competitors throughout the Bahamas and across the globe.

Greg Lowe finished first overall in the Olympic triathlon, Dale Hill of Marsh Harbour, Abaco, took the sprint triathlon while Peter Wagner won the open water swim.

Teenage competitors dominated the running events with 19-year-old Abaconian Adrian Whylly taking first place in the 10k run. 

In the relay events, Adam Isaac, Rob Rothwell and Phil Cumming took the Olympic male event while Lindsey McCoy, Nakia Wong and Kristin Williams took the female sprint version. 

“It went great. We had a little lower numbers than we had hoped for but everything went well. The weather was beautiful and we could not have asked for a better weekend in that regard,” said Lee McCoy, managing director of the GAFFW.

“We had a pretty fast field. Greg Lowe has done many of these before and he talked about how impressive the event was in terms of the field and for a first time event.” 

Last year’s event brought scores of volunteers and spectators.  

According to McCoy, this year there has been keen interest both locally and abroad, with a large group from Freeport planning to compete as well as a good base of athletes out of Nassau.  Abaconians are expected to provide strong competition yet again, as the inaugural event was successful and well-received throughout the archipelago.

In 2012, Simon Lowe and his father Greg were slated to compete head-to-head in the Olympic triathlon, but due to an injury Simon had to watch from the sidelines.  

This year they both plan on returning and Greg will defend his title against his son and the other competitors.  

“We had families registering the weekend of the event that were there on vacation. The winner of the 5k run was a 15-year old and his parents were there supporting him. The female winner was a 13-year-old and her father ran as well. We also had a kids race on Saturday which we had about 10 kids participate and they had a great time as well,” McCoy said.

“We have positive feedback. Everybody said it was a perfect event. We had people saying if they had known about it before they would have brought more people so we do have to work on our marketing and getting it out there. Treasure Cay was very impressed. We had people already asking us about next year’s date because they want to set their schedules around it.” 

McCoy said the event is primed to become a welcome addition to the country’s sports tourism product. 

“It would not have been possible without the Treasure Cay Resort and the Ministry of Tourism, they were great in terms of support, particularly the Bahamas Out Island Promotion Board. I think they have seen the potential and next year we can only grow from here,” he said. “We had somewhere in the vicinity of around 75 competitors and we hope to double or go even further next year. We look forward to not only working with everyone in the Bahamas but around the world. We had people from the Faroe Islands, UK, the US and Canada so we want to make this a true destination event for our international competitors.

Treasure Cay has one of the most scenic ocean swims available and it was ranked one of the top 10 beaches in the world by Caribbean Travel & Life.

This year Bahamas Ferries has a trip running from Nassau to Abaco for the event, leaving Friday morning and returning Sunday afternoon. 

Those interested are asked to contact Bahamas Ferries directly to book their transportation.