The Sunshine Coast Triathlon Academy along with it's Gold Sponsor Hybrid Concepts Australia, would like to announce the 2015-16 Junior Scholarship recipients in Jake Hynes and Savannah Wayner. Jake and Savannah have been an integral part of the SCTA / HCAUS junior program in the past season which saw Savannah named in the Australian ITU Junior team for the World Duathlon Championships in Adelaide later this year in October and Jake being named in the Queensland School Triathlon Championships last April.

Jake said "It is extremely humbling and quite daunting to be associated with past recipients of this Scholarship and hope to live up to the objective that lies ahead."

"Receiving this scholarship means a lot to me. Being a part of the SCTA / HCAUS Junior Scholarship tradition and looking forward to the season ahead" said Savannah.

Jake and savannah will follow on from 2014-15 Junior Scholarship recipients Lucy Evans and Will Gersekowski.

Lucy had this to say "Receiving the Sunshine Coast Triathlon Academy (SCTA) / Hybrid Concepts Australia junior scholarship has been a huge help with my junior triathlon racing this past season. The support of all of the fantastic sponsors over the past year has been helpful not only financially but both mentally and physically as well.

Being a senior student in High School is stressful and with the assistance of the scholarship it has taken the pressure off my study and training. It has allowed me to concentrate on my training, racing and study as race entries, places to stay and fantastic products from SCTA/HCAUS were provided for me. The financial support provided by the scholarship was an enormous help as triathlon is not exactly the cheapest sport to do. So, having the support from Head Coach Toby Coote, Jason Brown from Hybrid Concepts Australia and the fantastic sponsors was great to have.

The training is tailored to suit everyone whether you are an ironman, Olympic distance, sprint distance triathlete or you are in the junior series like me. Having a training program which is tailored specifically for everyone and is based around important races is amazing and takes the pressure and stress off the athletes.

The SCTA/HCAUS scholarship isn’t about the fastest, fittest or strongest, it is about the junior who is looking to improve and may even need financial support. If this is you I would most definitely recommend applying for the junior scholarship!

Another weekend of racing saw SCTA / HCAUS athletes competing in Jetty to Jetty, Queensland Schools Cross Country and Swedish Olympic distance Champs.

At Qld Schools Cross Country Champs we had some great results down at Runaway Bay. On a course that had everything with wind, hills and cool conditions the SCTA crew ran extremely well. Here are the results. Well done Juniors

Jennna Binet - 8th 17 Year girls
Meg Roberts - 12th 15 Year girls
Macey Roberts - 30th 13 Year girls
Elliot Gray - 19th place 14 Years boys
Peyton Craig - 13th place 10 Years boys

At Jetty to Jetty we had a few in the 10k and Half Marathon down at Redcliffe. The conditions weren't ideal for fast times with the wind but all raced well

Half Marathon
Kirra Seidel - 2nd 18-29 Years and 2nd Female overall
Malin Olson - 2nd 30-39 Years and 4th Female overall
10km
Savannah Wayner - 5th 18-25 Years and 9th Female overall
Marilyn Shrapnel - 23rd 60-69 Years

While over in Sweden we had Sebastian Norberg compete in the Swedish Olympic distance Champs to finish 4th place Pro.
Here is Seb's wrap up of the race.  The swim course Included a beach start with 500m in rough open water then 100m run with a dive into the Canal leading into the city centre. Tough conditions with hard crosswinds and a technical 8 lap bike course everyone had to do the job on the bike. Perfect for me, rode solo trough the field from 14th out of water to 5th out of t2. Then ran up to 4th quick and later even 3rd. Ran the last of 4 laps with the bronze in my hand but had a guy on my heels. Lost it on the sprint 50m from the finish just couldn't do anything about it...that's racing but I'm super happy with my progression and the result.

Well done to all that raced. Next race on the agenda is Moreton Bay Duathlon on Saturday 1st August.

Last night one of the iconic races in Europe was in action. No not the Tour de France, but Challenge Roth over the iron distance of 3.8 / 180 / 42.2.

SCTA club members, Jo, Matt and Will Carman lined up along with Carrie Lester. I know it hasn't been the ideal preparation for the Carman clan with Jo and Matty moving back home to Adelaide with Jo landing a great job, and with Will starting a new job as well on the Coast.

They got there in the end to finish one of the great races to tick off the bucket list.

Matt Carman - 9:51:30 - 43rd 30-34 Years Male
Will Carman - 11:48:15 - 12th 20-24 Years Male
Jo Carman - 11:50:41 - 38th 30-34 Years Female

It was great to see Carrie Lester have a great race to take 2nd on the podium and breaking the 9hr barrier in 8:53:09 and even more inspiring to see fellow Sunshine Coast resident Dave Dellow take out 3rd place in the Men's and breaking the 8hr barrier in 7:59:28 after a long road back from injury. Congrats very well deserved.

Another weekend of racing saw both Rachel James and Coach Toby Coote head to Port Moresby for the 15th Pacific Games.

With tough opposition from New Caledonia and Tahiti, it was always going to be a tough day out in the office. Rachel got off to a good start and set up a strong swim leg to come out of the water in 4th place.

The bike course consisted of 4 loops with a 800m-1km of climbing with a couple of sharp pinches to sort them out. Throw in a headwind on the flats and made for a hard day. Rachel slipped back a little to come of the bike in 6th place.

Out onto the 5km run which had the hill except they followed it up the highway and then returned down the same way. Rachel managed to pass one of the Tahitians in front of her but wasn't able to close the gap on the other girls.

5th place and first place of the commonwealth nations. A great result seen she was dead last 4 years ago at the same games. So a massive improvement.

The Gold Coast Marathon festival has been run over the weekend as well and we saw Dan Collins line up in the Marathon. Dan had been suffering from a little niggle in the hip which slowed down his preparations but was still able to run a very solid and respectable time of 2:48:05 which saw him 11th 40-44 years and 70th overall out of 6118 runners

A quiet weekend where there were no races with SCTA / HCAUS athletes racing, but plenty of action on the home front with school holidays upon us. We will also see the Coach - Toby Coote and PNG Athlete Rachel James, head to PNG on Wednesday for The Pacific Games being held in Port Moresby, Rachel's home town. Will be interesting for the Coach as he has never been to PNG before so will a great opportunity to see another country. Rachel is the # 1 PNG athlete and was fortunate enough to get a start in the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow. The race is set down for Sunday 5th July.

It is also the same day that the Gold Coast Marathon will be run on the Gold Coast. I know that Dan Collins will be lining up in the marathon. He has been in great form with some awesome results in some half and marathons over the past 6 months.

Savannah Wayner appeared on Win TV 2 weeks ago being interviewed by Josh Minogue on her selection into the Australian ITU Junior Team for the World Duathlon Champs being held in Adelaide in October. Click here to see

Don't forget the SCTA / HCAUS Junior school holiday program is in full swing check out the Timetable by clicking here