Sikkim basked in the glory of state athlete Joy Gurung who has finishing second among Indians and 194th overall in ‘Iron Man 70.3’, an international triathlon competition, which was held in Danang, of Vietnam on May 13.
The triathlon is considered one of the toughest endurance tests covering a total distance of 113 kilometres in three disciplines: swimming, cycling and running.
The Danang competition included two km of swimming in the South China Sea, 90 km cycling and 21 km of running.
Joy, the 21-year-old from Dentam in West Sikkim finished the two km swimming in 44.13 minutes, the 90 km cycling in 02:40:36 and the 21 km half-marathon in 02:05:02 clocking an overall timing of 05:35:34.
Out of the 27 Indian participants, he stood second, and secured 194th position out of 1,113 athletes from across the globe.
Amongst the Asians in the competition, he finished in the 24th position securing 2,707 points.
Gurung secured 11th position in his age group of of 25-29 years and also finished 167th out of 897 male contenders.
Gurung, who works as a sub-inspector in Namchi police station in South Sikkim, was competing in his second international triathlon competition after Phuket in Thailand in October, 2017.
Joy had rigorously trained for one-and-half months for the Vietnam tournament.