Preview: Triathlon NSW 2011 Club Championship Race

There are two tables below. One shows the clubs by division sorted by entrant numbers. The second table shows how many categories each club has covered. The only thing unknown at this stage is what the quality of athletes is like that are representing each club in each age group.

On the 13th of January 1987 A Cronulla Triathlon club team comprising Tony Unicomb, Rick Pallister, Mark Pringle, Greg Welch, and John Holt won the first ever NSW Club Championship event. Over the years the race has been held at a number of locations; including Heffron Park, and various locations on the Central Coast. This year the race will be held at Forster with the biggest ever field so far. The trophy has been won in recent times by Waringah with Hills getting very close in the last two years.

2011 will see other clubs vying for the title with huge recruitment campaigns coming from BRATS and “Cronulla. Cronulla will be sending its biggest and fastest team yet. Athletes such as Sam Douglas, Michael Fox, and Lisa Marangon will be leading the charge. President Gary Eykhof has been inspiring and motivating his members with regular emails and calls to arms. Cronulla has regained its sense of history and tradition and will go into Saturday’s event as firm underdogs. The tried and true method of victory for Warringah and Hills triathlon Clubs will still be difficult to topple. However, Cronulla will draw its strength from the spirit of its 4 World Ironman Champions and 27 year history.

Thanks Mick… you know a club is serious when they roll out these guns. Foxy, Douglas and Marangon have taken most of the triseries races this season over the olympic distance. Throw in Mick Maroney who will be spoiling our party in M40-44. Just when Peter Walker had moved up to 45-49 as well as Bruce Thomas and we thought we had a chance to finish higher along comes Mick. Darren Quarrell is there of course for M40-44 after moving up from 35-39 as well as Steve McKay who won this age group at Callala this year over the same distance. It will be a battle for 3rd place and beyond.

Duncan Houston and Ben Hammond will be up against Fox and Douglas this year in 18-24. That will be a tough age group

The Mudgee Triathlon Club would have to be hot favourites for Div 3. Turing out for them is Luke Gillmer. Luke recently turned pro and raced the Port Macquarie 70.3 coming 16th overall in his first pro race. The day didn’t go as planned for Luke but he learn’t a lot from it. This weekend should see him up at the pointy end.

Ben Hammond will be racing for Warringah this year but is in the middle of a break so he may be off his game a bit. Peter Walker is not racing this year choosing instead to do the Sydney half marathon. Going for line honours in 45-49 will be Bruce Thomas from Balmoral Tri Club. Bruce is four times Australian ironman champ. He doesn’t like being mentioned but when you can turn up to Huskisson long course and rip out a 4:01 at 45 with out too much training it is worth mentioning your name. Missing from Warringah will be Australia’s latest Ironman Champion Pete Jacobs. Pete is resting his foot after winning Ironman over a week ago. He was hobbling around after the race and didn’t look too good.
I see Spot Anderson’s name down in 45-49. He spent a week surfing up at Port Mac around Ironman time while his lovely lady raced. I don’t think he was training for club champs. At least he is turning up. He is a champion and will still produce a good time.

Warringah feel that they have the spread of quality atheletes across all the age groups to hold off Cronulla, Balmroal and Hills this year for overall honours. Hills looks a bit light on with numbers compared to the last couple of years.

Balmoral are missing a few of their speedsters this year but do have a good covering of the age groups. Sophia Amor-Smith who has won outright female for the last couple of years is away overseas along with her partner and Balmoral member Pete Schokman. Matt Palmer will also be missing for Balmoral. Matt was first age grouper home at the recent Port Macqaurie 70.3. Balmoral will have Todd Israel and Matt Webster who should be good for the 35-39 age group. Cam Dinnie who was 6th overall last year should also be there in the mix for his age group. In addition Christina Thomas (previous Australian ironman champ) and Sarah Green in 45-44 will also bolster Balmoral’s points tally.

Illawara Tri Club will have Alex Price racing for them this year. Alex normally races under a pro licence but the last six months have seen him suffering from a serious foot problem. This is fixed now and Alex is starting to get back to race fitness. He recently did the Port Macqaurie 70.3 finishing 22 overall. He should be good for club champs with the shorter run playing in to his hands due to lack of run miles in his legs.

Racing also will be Jarrad Adams who placed 11th overall in 3:55 at the recent Huskisson long course triathlon beating home a few pros in the process.

Mising this year is last years overall winner Christian Kemp. Kemp put daylight between himself and the rest of the field when he finished in 1:26. He will be overseas with Amanda Bott so neither will be racing this year. With Kemp out that is last year’s 1 & 2 missing from M25-29.

Which club has covered the most categories?