The Discovery Triathlon Club has recently attracted sponsorship from the Essex based Sovereign Guards UK, a security company which operates throughout the United Kingdom.

After presenting both Junior and Elite teams with new ‘Hoody’ training tops, Managing Director Mr. Stone said “it was a pleasure to help sport at grassroots level and in particular such an exciting set of young children who through dedication have achieved success at local, regional and National level in the British IR Championships”.

This is an incredible achievement by the club which was formed in 2006 with just a few members and now because of their success is attracting commercial sponsorship, as well as new members from all over Essex and Suffolk.

The event will be moving to the brand new sporting village at Gloucester Park, Basildon. The race will be run in the afternoon with the Tri star event beginning at 12:00. The swim will be a 'snake' swim across the pool and the run will take place on the grass fields, wholly within the grounds of Gloucester Park.

All races will finish on the running track in front of your cheering family and friends.

The course will be finalised nearer the day but the proposed route is available by clicking on the link on the event page:

http://www.east-essex-tri-club.co.uk/EETCEvents/Aquathlon/Aquathlon.htm

The Tri star races will be open to all children from 8 to 14 (age as of 31st Dec 2012).

Race distances for Tri Stars are:

Age Group (as of 31st Dec 2012)	Swim		Run
Tri Start:  8	50 meters		600 meters
Tri star 1: 9-10	150 meters		1200 meters
Tri star 2: 11-12	200 meters		1800 meters
Tri star 3: 13-14	300 meters		2400 meters

To enter now go to: http://entrycentral.com/index.php?raceID=100478
or for more information email the race director Richard Fuller

Conditions on the ground were ideal for a fast run, with 67 competitors taking part and from the start it was Discovery Tri. who set the pace with brothers Oliver and Elliot Swallow leading the way on the grass part of the course with Alexandra Rae being the first girl of the club in 9th place. By the time they entered the woods the field had spread out to single file compared to the10 abreast just after the start.

Spectators from all 13 clubs anxiously awaited the runners to reappear from the woods on the their homeward bound course and when the cries went up of “here they come”, Oliver Swallow was still in the lead by some considerable distance with his brother having fallen back to third and Sonny Son maintaining his fifth position with Samantha Ragus leading the girls home in tenth spot.

Overall Individual Results (Top Age Group Positions shown in brackets):

1st Oliver Swallow (1st,U17Boys), 3rd Elliot Swallow (2nd.U13B), 5th.Sonny Son (2nd. U17B), 10th.Samantha Ragus(1st.U17 Girls), 13th.Liam Nicholson,  15thAaron Stone (2nd U11B),  20th.Alex Rendall (4th U13G),  21st.Clover Murray (3rd U17G), 26th Jonathan Choi (5th.U17B), 29th.Alexandra Rae (4th U17G), 34th Abigail Kerr(3rd U11G). 36th Alexa Cox (5th U17G). 48th Ciara Nicholson. 53rd Charlotte Gowers, 54th Lucy Pike, 64th Lauren Gowers.

In speaking to her upon her return she briefly described the three disciplines of the race:
Swim – “Brutal, Rough and Busy and came out of the water in 3rd spot in my age group” (although I noticed by her time she was only a few metres behind the eventual overall winner of the Elite Professionals, GB’s own Chrissie Wellington).
Bike – “Tough in high temperatures and winds, really cooking from 80 miles onwards”.
Run – “Hot, Hot, Hot,- nausea, as I could not cool down”. At the end she completed the course in 11hours and 18 min. to come over the finish line in 15th place in her age group out of the 52 competitors selected from across the world. The physical reward was Heat Stroke which resulted in 3hours of medical treatment/IV Infusion.

Her final comments (junior members please take note and learn from her experience/preparation) – was that she would love the opportunity to go again and give herself the chance of being a bit more competitive by better preparation in ‘heat acclimatisation’. Explaining that this years training also included, from April to Sept ‘cold water swimming’ in preparation for the September Cross Channel Relay, which was not the ideal preparation for the heat and humidity of Kona.

Despite her own self criticism of “Need to do better”, the club congratulates her qualifying for the World Championships in the first place and then finally achieving a ranking of 15th in the world.

I am sure, for those junior members who are lucky enough to be trained by Melissa; she will give you a more in depth description of her experience and provide advice on your own preparations for 2012 triathlons.

This is fourth consecutive year that Discovery Tri has had at least one member successfully gaining qualification.
2008. Rozlyn Smith and Oliver Swallow competed at Aldershot, which was the very first time they had raced on roads and yet gained very creditable rankings of 12th and 15th.
2009. Saw them both qualify again when the event was held at the very difficult course at Parc Bryn Bach in Wales, where Oliver was a Silver Medallist but unfortunately Rozlyn crashed.
2010. Once again Oliver qualified for the event and gained a ranking of 13th.The event was again held in Wales on the same day and course as the British Sprint Championship Finals in which the Brownlee brothers, Tim Don and Stuart Hayes were competing - it was autograph hunting and photo shots for all the youngsters and the world stars were so happy to be allowed to be photographed with so much talent!
2011. Both Elliot’s are keeping that fantastic record going for the club, with Harrison Staines and Oliver Swallow close behind in gaining selection as reserves. This is truly outstanding for such a small club.

It not only demonstrates the tremendous talent which exists within the club but also the quality of coaching which the members receive to enable them to achieve such high standards.

Well Done – to my coaching staff and not only you talented youngsters mentioned above but to all of you for your excellent performances so far this season, you all make me feel very proud.

Wendy Staines – Head Coach and Founder Member