Race Update

Sunshine Coast Tri Academy / Hybrid Concepts Australia athletes headed to Rainbow Beach for the double tri which consisted of a sprint distance tri (750m swim / 20 km cycle / 5km run) on the Saturday afternoon and backing up again Sunday morning. As with all races the weather plays a massive part in the preparation and this weekend was very similar to the previous years event. On Friday we had constant rain which continued thru the night and into Saturday morning. With most of the athletes heading up on Friday afternoon the plan was to ride Saturday morning and then prepare for the 3.30pm Race start.

Lucky for the athletes the Coach was prepared and bought the rollers up for an 1hr warm up Saturday morning with some short sharp intervals. With the surf a solid 4-5 foot Friday afternoon there was always going to be an element of doubt that the swim would be cancelled. This was true to form and in my opinion probably the safest move for all athletes of the race. I knew the SCTA / HCAUS athletes would handle it as we swim every week in the surf and open water and they would of relished the conditions, but safety of all is paramount. So Saturday's race would consist of a 2.5km run / 20km cycle / 2.5km run

The afternoon started off with the kids race and SCTA were represented by Memphis Shield and Jemma Hynes. Both had flying starts to lead the first run early but were overtaken on the bikes by older juniors in their respective categories - results below.

Then onto the main race which saw all the athletes lining up with the Men off first then the females and teams 5 mins later. In the men's race there was a quality field lining up that included Australian Junior Rep Matt Hauser getting a hit out below world champs and would be a great indicator as to where SCTA / HCAUS Junior scholarship recipient Jake Hynes is up against one of the best Juniors running around. It was great to see Brodie Gardner hit the tarmac for the first time in 18 months as all his racing is done off road in the Xterra cross triathlons. It would give him his fist hit out in the lead up to the Xterra World Champs in Maui later in the year. Chris George, the consistent BJ Brown the evergreen Brett Stalley, and the jockey Shane Shield rounded out the Men.

In the Female we had Savannah Wayner, Romy Wolstencroft, Paris Shield, Matilda Barrett, Tania Gover and Rachel James. All had solid races and the Junior girls in particular learnt a valuable lesson in race pace control especially with the run first. After a debrief and recovery process all athletes were happy and we headed to the pub for dinner.

After a good night sleep we woke up to stars in the sky and the wind had dropped off overnight so we were hoping the predicted drop in swell would eventuate and we would see a swim start. If it was to be a swim we would see the dynamics of the Saturday race change dramatically. Swim was on and the SCTA / HCAUS athletes were pretty excited about the outcome.

All athletes backed up for Day 2 with the exception of the Junior Girls of Paris Shield and Matilda Barrett who both joined forces with Lucy Evans to do a team and we saw the addition of Malin Olson on the individual start line.

As expected the swim did sort the race out dramatically and saw a lot of changes in position from race 1. Brodie Gardner had another great day out finishing 3rd over the lining which gave him 3rd overall. with the rest of the boys doing a great job continuing on from the pervious day. 

In the Ladies SCTA / HCAUS Junior Scholarship recipient Savannah Wayner stamped her authority on the race leading the way to take out the the race and the overall race win for the weekend. Romy Wolstencroft had a magical 2 days of racing which were set up from strong run performances to take out 2nd place behind Savannah and 2nd place overall for the weekend. Malin Olson ran thru the field to round out an all SCTA podium in 3rd place. While our junior girls dominated the teams with a first place.

A big thanks to all the parents that came up and helped over the weekend. It is great event and we will be back again next year. A big thanks to Sue Brown who gave up her time to be the Race Referee. Well down to Phil Hungerford and the team that put the race on.

Results from the weekend
Savannah Wayner - RACE WINNER - 1st 18-19 Years
Romy Wolstencroft - 2nd Outright - 1st U/17 Years
Brodie Gardner - 3rd Outright - 2nd 25-29 years
Jake Hynes - 1st U/17 Years
Brett Stalley - 1st 50-54 Years
Tania Gover - 1st 35-39 Years
BJ Brown - 2nd U/17 Years
Chris George - 2nd 30-34 Years
Rachel James - 4th 30-34 Years
Memphis Shield - 1st 10-11 Years Kids
Jemma Hynes - 3rd 7-9 Years Kids

On Friday morning both Head Coach Toby Coote and PNG Athlete Rachel James went to the inaugural Sunshine Coast Sports Federation Sports Industry awards. The occasion marked the 1 year to the Rio Olympics. Special guests, sporting identities and politicians where on hand. The Sunshine Coast Tri Academy / Hybrid Concepts Australia were awarded a highly commended in the association category for the work it has done for the past 13 years. It was great to be honoured with this award and shows the hard work being done by the SCTA / HCAUS athletes and Coaches is being reflected in the Sunshine Coast Sports Federation Sports Industry Awards