Oein Josiah on his bike leg during last weekend’s Massy Rainbow Cup.
Jason Wilson on the road.
It was a Bajan Invasion in Tobago last weekend as triathletes Jason Wilson and Oein Josiah took tops in their respective classes of the 2017 edition of the Massy Rainbow Cup. With the pair winning the Olympic and Sprint triathlons respectively in loaded fields, the victories sat well with them as Josiah successfully defended his 2016 title while Wilson made a triumphant return after not making it to the event in seven years.
Josiah topped the Sprint event with a time of 1:07.37 hours ahead of Jamaica’s Philip McCatty (1:08.59) and Dwayne Roach of Trinidad and Tobago (1:11.08). Coming out of the water down the line, Josiah had a good ride over the 20K bike section to move up to fifth before taking over proceedings at the 2K mark in the 5K run. Noting that it was a very controlled run for him, Josiah said that he did not go out too quickly on the run but attacked the hills which led to his domination of the section and the entire race.
The coming months will see Josiah taking on the London Triathlon in July, the ITU World Championships in the Netherlands in September and the Barbados National Championship in October.
Wilson, who was taking up his first assignment since the 2016 Rio Olympics where he took a nasty fall which dented his chances of making a real impression, also came home well ahead of the rest of the pack in the Olympic distance triathlon. He clocked 2:04.36 hours to beat Clement Briere of France (2:05.02) and Yhousman Perdomo of Venezuela who had 2:10.44 hours.
Speaking to The Barbados Advocate, Wilson said that the race was used as training ahead of an intensive summer in Europe. “I kinda used it as a test race to get back in some fitness before I head back over to Europe for summer. I was happy with the performance as I finished first. It wasn’t a strong field but it was decent – it had some guys from Canada, the US and Europe – so it was good.” he said. Noting that he would be doing sprint events in the summer with tougher fields, Wilson said that he would be using them as a gauge for Commonwealth Games in Australia next year.