Durango’s Zia Fadil continues to show her speed against older and more experienced athletes. Fadil won the women’s Payson Orchards Sprint Triathlon in Payson, Utah, and finished third overall.
Fadil, 14, finished first in the women’s sprint triathlon out of 110 women and third overall out of 222 competitors in 1 hour, 4 minutes and 30.8 seconds. Nathan Pollard won the race in 59:43.8 and Zane Evans finished second in 1:01:36.2.
“I'm really happy with my performance, especially since I missed a turn and added on about four minutes to what my time would have been,” Fadil said. “I missed a big left turn where the police were supposed to be helping direct us; about five other people missed it. It was really frustrating, but looking back on it, it was a really great learning experience. It showed me that I can't rely on anyone else but myself to know the course.”
A sprint triathlon usually consists of a 5-kilometer run, a 20-kilometer bike ride and anywhere between 300 and 750 yards swim. The Payson Orchards Sprint had a 300-yard swim.
Fadil is focused on running as she prepares for her freshman season on the Durango High School cross country and track and field teams. She’s used triathlons as cross-training, but has started to enjoy them more as she’s done more of them.
The rising star finished her running season two weeks ago, but she knew she was going to Peru on vacation after this sprint triathlon. Therefore, she trained for two extra weeks for this sprint triathlon so she could take a break for vacation.
Saturday’s sprint triathlon was a reverse triathlon with the running first, then biking and then swimming. Fadil was easily the fastest runner in the field, but lost some time compared to her competitors in the biking section, where she was the 47th fastest. That was the section where Fadil missed a turn and went four miles further than she should’ve.
Fadil finished strong and was third in the swim section.
“I'm a runner, and I do swim competitively in the winter with a Durango Swim Club, but I'm not super focused on swimming even during the swim season,” Fadil said. “I use that as cross-training as well. But I definitely had to improve my biking and also during the triathlon, I definitely noticed that I was stronger and faster.”
One of the reasons Fadil felt more comfortable on the bike was she got a bike fitting done with local mountain bike coach Rotem Ishay. She said Ishay gave some great advice on being faster on the bike.
Fadil will run cross country for Durango High School as a freshman in the fall and should contend for race wins from the beginning of her high school career.
bkelly@durangoherald.com
