Moroccan triathlete seeks podium on homemade prosthesis

Mohamed Lahna hopes to use this weekend’s ITU World Triathlon San Diego as a kick-start to his Rio 2016 training. 20 Apr 2013

Mohamed Lahna

ⒸITU

By Silvia Vieito | For the IPC

“Of course it would be great to get on the podium again, but this year will be difficult. The competition is getting stronger every year. It will be interesting to see how much it has grown since last year.”

Six days after running the Marathon des Sables across the Sahara desert, picking up blisters on his feet along the way, Moroccan para-triathlete Mohamed Lahna hopes to steal the headlines on Saturday (20 April) when the ITU’s season kicks off in San Diego, USA.

The ITU World Triathlon San Diego will be the first of five para-triathlon events this season that showcases TRI-2 medallists such as Lahna, who grabbed a silver medal at the 2011 World Championships in Beijing, China, which was the first medal for any Arab athlete in ITU history.

After a disappointing seventh-place finish at last year’s World Championships n Auckland, New Zealand, though, Lahna is looking to get back on track this season and wants to return to the podium for the London World Triathlon Grand Final from 11-15 September.

“It will be a top priority,” he said.

“Of course it would be great to get on the podium again, but this year will be difficult. The competition is getting stronger every year. It will be interesting to see how much it has grown since last year.”

Lahna, 30, will look to use this season’s first race as a starting platform for his Rio 2016 Games training.

With new athletes taking up para-triathlon each year, the competition is exponentially increasing. Lahna will go up against the USA’s Matt Perkins and Canada’s Grant Darby this weekend, both of whom have been taking part in para-triathlon events for nearly a decade.

Perkins, in fact, won bronze in Auckland last year and has three world titles to his name.

Born with a congenital deficiency, Lahna now uses a homemade prosthetic leg and has been trying to catch sponsors’ attention by completing the Escape From Alcatraz event and swimming across the Gibraltar Strait that separates Morocco and Spain.

“I think it's amazing how my life has allowed me the opportunity to do these things,” Lahna said.

“The two swims were very different. The Gibraltar was a long swim with just myself and tested my endurance and mental strength to keep pushing. Escape From Alcatraz was a much larger event with many swimmers that made it exciting in its own way.

The Marathon des Sables was his latest big endeavour – an event he said he was able to really dig deep in and realise what he is capable of.

“I almost wanted to quit the first day after getting lost and having repeated problems with my prosthesis, but being able to conquer that first day just kept me going,” Lahna said.

“I learned a lot about myself and how to conquer mental, emotional, and physical fatigue.”