2015/16 SCTA Female recipient - Savannah Wayner

Savannah Wayner, Triathlete
I’m Savannah Wayner and I am proud to be the SCTA  Junior Scholarship recipient of 2015/2016. I am both honoured and excited by this opportunity.

It is exciting to look into my future for this season and see the support and encouragement I will receive to reach my potential. 

How it all began
At the age of 5 my mum packed up my brother and off we travelled to the middle of nowhere. We moved 4 hours away into the bush to a small town, population 1,175. There was never really a wide variety of sport to be played. It was pretty simple in small country towns, boys played Ruby League and girls played Netball. Netball differently wasn’t an easy sport for me as I worked so hard towards catching the ball that it never actually happened.

However, I did have the opportunity to compete in swimming and I learnt the basics. In 2010 my family moved to Beaudesert. During that year my brother and I decided to make it our thing to go running. I became hooked on running and soon became better than my big brother.

That next year we moved backed to Sunshine Coast. I kept up my running, but I only saw it as a type of fitness. Around the start of May 2012 my brother pointed at an advertisement for the Caloundra Triathlon Club and the next day I was signed up with my brother.

I had no idea what a triathlon even was, what it consist of and why the handle bars of the bike were bent like that. However my brother and I rocked up to the Saturday season, which was a swim and run repeated wearing boardies and a rashie. We were out of the water last, but had a killer of a run. I met a new group of people there that had the same mind set as me. 

Two weeks later we showed up to a Thursday ride. We walked into the bike shop having almost no knowledge of bikes, some just looked nicer than others. I remember the pain I felt when I payed for  the bike; little did I know how much this sport was going to end up costing me. Other than Jake, I did everything wrong with learning to ride a tri bike. I failed many times at traffic lights and it was always a laugh. I remember great times with this club and its members learning about and participating in triathlons.

Toby becomes the boss 

I found out a triathlon friend was doing swim sessions with this TOP coach Toby Coote; I decided he must have been pretty important, because everyone knew the dude. I decided to join her on the school holidays and we would ride our bike down to Kawana Pool and swim. I began to enjoy Toby as a coach and the people that trained with him. The atmosphere was fun and there were always smiles and laughs. I gradually did more sessions with Sunshine Coast Triathlon Academy and eventually moved clubs.

Initially competed in many age groups events, after winning and placing in several I took the next step to compete in opens. My first open race was Queensland Tri Series at Kawana; it may have only been a small race, but I was the most nervous I had ever been for any race. The thought of racing with people I had watched and looked up to made me proud of myself for coming this far. Since that day I have only competed in opens and the nerves are still there every time I look at the race list, however you have to race with the best to be the best.

 Last year I had the experience of training and racing in America for three months with the coach of the Cleveland State Triathlon Team, in the lead up to the World Triathlon Championships.   I was fortunate enough to compete against some exceptional up and coming American athletes and spend some quality time with my grandparents.   Especially powerful for me was to meet so many more people my own age who shared my passion for excellence in our sport and understood the long hours of training, dedication and discipline required to achieve those few glorious moments of exhilaration when we cross the finish line.

2014/2015 year Accomplishments - Triathlon
2014 Australian Duathlon Champs - 4th ITU Junior (3rd Aussie) Selected into Australian ITU Junior Team for Worlds

2014 World Triathlon Sprint Champs - 5th 16-19 years

2014 Australian Youth Championships – 4th 17/18 Years

2015 ITU Oceania Triathlon Champs – 16th

The up-coming season
My goal for this season is simple: Train hard to become my best. Our bodies are amazing with what they can produce with the right nutrition and training. This up coming season holds a lot of potential for me. My main focus at the moment is the World Duathlon event I will be competing in as a junior elite in October. I am striving towards coming in the top three. I will participate in local events and complete my last year in Australian Youth Championships; achieving podium finishes, with the improvement of my skill. This year I am currently studying nutrition at University; and strive to improve my own nutrition, including my hydration, both at races and training