Race Report 1: October 16 2022

Thanks kindly to Viridian Glass who were our sponsors for today’s race that opened up with near perfect conditions.  A warm welcome to all returning members, and to all our new members, fantastic to see you being part of our Club and participating in what for many of you would have been your first triathlon.  Congratulations!   We had 39 athletes doing the Sprint course, 6 on the Enticer and Garry Ward completed the Aquabike in 53:11- well done!  
And thanks to all our volunteers out on the course and around transition, especially Phil Benoit, our volunteer of the week, ably assisted by Tina who arrived very early to assist with some transition adjustments and helped organised the swim leg.  A special thanks to Alina for helping out on the swim with our newer athletes to ensure they were ok.   It was great to see Mick Booth guiding Pete Roberts at the timing tent on his birthday -  HAPPY BIRTHDAY Mick and thank you for all you do to help the Club! 
After kind swim conditions athletes entered the transition and on the whole managed the close entry and exit well.  Once the Club finishes the new access ramp works shortly we expect to be able to return to our normal exit out of transition to the bike and run.  After a rocket time for the swim Delenn Croaker, in her first Tri, hopped on her bike trainer and soaked up some funky tunes while smashing out a solid 20-25 minutes till tri buddy Clare Fairweather arrived.   Chomping to get on the run Delenn gave a very solid run performance for her first event.  
There were some solid and powerful finish line arrivals with Isaiah, Hudson and Shannon showing great form again and mixing it up not that far behind was a close group with Chris Hamilton, PT, MG being closely pursued by Hodgy.   New member Adrian Hawke, on his first Club tri for many years with a sub 1:10, will test the faster athletes through the course.  Last season’s Club Champ Andrea Burth ran well to the line and coming off completing the Sunshine Coast 70.3, and with Ian’s borrowed tri bike for the first time, Jo Fergusson was looking very comfortable not far behind.  Great to hubby Ian back on the course and Allira Bayndrian, Jen Booth, Marg Roberts, Brad Henry, Adam Cross, Shaun Bayndrian, and Joe Quiring, looking good while Loz Hodge was running with great form to the finish.  Of course great to see our Club legends Peter Wood improvising with a torn bike cleat and Wendy Maley on the course.  
To our first timers and new members Millie Cooke, Adrian Hawke, Ian Hogbin, Maria Wood, Shirley Snedden, Siarn O Neil, Ben Rose  Delenn Croaker, Robyn McGeary, Lydia Mackay and Karyn O’Reilly you did so well and congratulations again.   
Thank you to everyone that was able to stay for the presentation.   Photos will be available on FB and possibly the web site soon. 
 Our first male across the line in the Sprint race was Isaiah Koopmans in 1:03:01 closely followed by a fast finishing Hudson Barry in 1:04:33.  Pat Brennan rounded out the podium at 1:07:56.  In our females Shannon O’Hara was fastest finisher in 1:15:39 followed by Andrea Burth in 1:24:05 and in 3rd place Jo Ferguson in 1:26:27 (all prelim results). 
In the Enticer Titan Barry came home in the fastest time of 40:12 followed by Ian Swanborough in 45:03 and Delinn Croaker in 49:31.    
The Club participates in the North Coast Series and the first event is a Sprint race on 30 November in Kingscliff, followed by a Sprint at the Yamba Tri on 4 December.  The Enicer and other kids races are available at these events so check out the web sites.  Further races including the beautiful Trial Bay are held in February to April.  Would be great to see as many of us are able to give the series a good old shake up this season. 
The NSW Club Champs have only just been announced to be at Forster again and this time being organised by H Events on 27 May 2023.  Pencil this one in the calendar, and while its a little way off, its a terrific way to celebrate and finish off the season, more on this later…. 
Our next race is the Try a Tri in 2 weeks on 30 October and an opportunity for anyone to come along and see what the sport of triathlon is all about.   Please consider reaching out and inviting a friend or mate to come along and check it out. There will be a BBQ available at the finish.   Till then thanks for being so supportive to our new Committee, train well and stay safe!!
Peter Birch
Race Director