Europe Triathlon

Constantinos Neophytou is the new President of the Cypriot Triathlon Federation and he arrives with big plans for the Federation.

Cyprus is one of the smallest Triathlon federations in the world, but Neophytou is determined to carry on the great work of his predecessor Bambos Spanoudes, in continuing to develop Triathlon in the country.

“The previous President has worked for eight years and I just want to contribute my time and effort,” said Neophytou. “I would be very proud to continue the work of my predecessor.”

Neophytou was elected towards the end of 2012 and says the Federation is in a good place to carry on developing the sport.

“We are a bit behind in terms of volunteers and money. But we are strong and we have good governance with a good, clear strategy to improve,” he said.

Top priority for the Cypriot Federation is to improve participation: “We have started a new initiative to get more people involved in races. We are a small country but the amount of people, especially in age groups, where everywhere else is growing,  is not as it should be. That is the top priority,” said the President.

Neophytou says the popularity of Triathlon in Cyrpus is growing and he believes that the large ex-pat community in Cyrpus (Brits and Russians) can have a huge impact on its development.

“For the local people, triathlon is definitely a work in progress. But we do have a large ex-pat community and if we can convince them to become active in their community then we have a chance of encouraging others,” Neophytou said.

Neophytou’s other priority is for the younger athletes, and his long term goal is for Cyprus to host an International European race.

“ We want to give our young athletes the best opportunity to compete in ETU races,” he said. “To give them the best chance to join the elite triathlon athletes and races.

“We are proposing to do a Junior European Cup race. We must have a junior focus for them to come through and develop. This will help them not to become intimidated by the bigger guys, but also to get attention and publicity.

“Our holy grail is to host a race in Cyrpus!”

CYRPUS TRIATHLON FEDERATION

President: Constantinos Neophytou

For more information on the Cyprus Triathlon Federation, contact Constantinos on president@cytrifed.org