QLD TRANSITIONS 21/3/13

MOOLOOLABA TRIATHLON

The Tri Alliance crew had another great weekend away at Mooloolaba.  Despite the hot conditions and the change to the river for the swim we had some great results.  A full list of the results is at http://tri-alliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/03/2013-03-17-Mooloolaba-Tri.pdf

Special mention to a couple of our great Masters athletes in Jan Avery Spoor for her 3rd place in the 55-59 age group and John De La Courte in the men’s 70-74.  They are a great example of living life to the full and showing us all that age is no barrier.

Whilst Mooloolaba is behind us we still have the last round of the club champs at Redcliffe on April 7th, Luke Harrop on the 14th of April and Byron Bay Tri in May.  Then for many onto Cairns for the IM and 70.3 event.

The club champs series has been a great concept and has really brought the Tri Alliance team together. It has been fun racing against the other clubs so lets finish the series with a bang and get as many Tri Alliance members racing as possible.

Go the Triathlon Queensland website and complete your entry. Make sure you nominate Tri Alliance as your club when entering.

IM MELBOURNE

We have a few athletes heading South this week to compete at IM Melbourne.  This event is the biggest IM event in the Southern Hemisphere so everyone is excited to be part of it.

Joining the big Tri Alliance Victoria crew are Krista Page, Kate Markey, Phillipa Smith, Calum Lazenby, Simon Corrie and coach Suz.  Unfortunately Yas Grigaluinas has had to withdraw due to a foot injury but she will still be there supporting her team mates.

For Kate, Phillip, Calum and Simon it is their first IM experience.  They have done the work and are very much looking forward to the challenge ahead on Sunday.  Krista is lining up for her third IM event and is quietly confident of producing a PB race.

Good luck to everyone on behalf of the whole Tri Alliance Queensland team.

SMILE FOR SMIDDY

Our Smile for Smiddy Campaign is coming along nicely but we still have a long way to go before we reach our target of $100,000 by Noosa this year. Currently we have raised almost $26,000 which is a fantastic result so far.

We do need more people to assist us with the fundraising.  It is a simple process to set up your own page and get it started.  Just go to http://www.smiddyfundraising.com.au/event/tri-alliance and create your own fundraising page.

You can take up the option of free coaching and set the goal to raise a certain amount or just do some fundraising without the free coaching.  Remember we also have the yellow headbands for $10 and the Easter Raffle going at the moment with all proceeds going to the overall amount.

TRIATHLON SAMOA AND COACH RAY

As many of you know coach Ray hails from Samoa.  Ray is very proud of his heritage and heads home on a regular basis to visit family and friends.  What Ray also does each time he goes home is take some second hand swim equipment such as goggles and fins for the local kids to use in their swimming programs.

Ray is about to head home again in a couple of weeks after his up coming wedding so if anyone has some old swim equipment they no longer use, please pass onto Ray so he can distribute to some of the local kids.  This helps the kids in their learn to swim programs as many don’t have access to such equipment.

Ray grew up playing Rugby and Triathlon certainly wasn’t part of the local sporting culture.  It was only when he moved to Brisbane and took the sport up a few years ago that Ray grew to love this sport called Triathlon.  Since then he has gone to represent Samoa at the World Championships, complete an IM and become a great coach.

Recently Triathlon has started to gain some popularity in Samoa and in August it will hold it’s first half IM event.  Ray has certainly played a part in that popularity so much so that in a recent triathlon in Samoa a local man without a name has won the opportunity to come to Australia, stay with Ray and his lovely wife to be Jacqui and train with Tri Alliance.

The following link is all about how this came to be.  It truly shows the impact people like Ray and a few other dedicated locals are having in promoting this wonderful sport we all love. http://www.samoaobserver.ws/home/headlines/4007-man-with-no-identity-tragic-story-behind-winner-revealed

We look forward to meeting the man with no identity when he comes to train with us later in the year.

FACEBOOK PHOTO OF THE MONTH

March is the month we’re dedicating to the Mum’s.  So far we have received some great photos celebrating the Mum’s in our life.

We would love to see some more before the end of the month so if you have a photo with your Mum or if you’re a Mum with your kids please send to [email protected]