Triathlon

A triathlon is an endurance multi-sport race consisting of an open water swim, cycle, and finishing with a run. The school enters its students into either the Fun Tri distance for the younger and less experienced athletes, which consists of a 150m swim, 7km ride followed by a 1.2km run; for the older and more experienced racers, there is an opportunity to compete in the Sprint Distance, a 500m swim, 20km ride and 5km run. Our squad this year was lucky enough to have been coached by the legendary Olympian and Commonwealth Games medallist Craig Mottram, along with the help of teachers and fellow triathletes, Dr Smith and Mr Allen. I’m sure I can say, on behalf of the rest of the squad, how grateful we are that we have been guided and coached by such talented and passionate people. I have no doubt that the enthusiasm from our coaches has led to major improvements across the whole team.

In early November, the students headed down to the freezing waters of Elwood for the first race of the 2021/22 season. After Covid-19 interrupted a couple of weeks of training, the lads were ready to put their hard work to the test. Being treated to the best weather of all season, the students went out and laid down some decent times that would act as goals to beat in the next couple of races. As per usual, star swimmer Ryan Humphries was the first of the sprinters out of the water, not too far behind him was Lucas Rodriguez and Lachlan Harker. Lucas took to the bike with ease, recording a time almost three minutes faster than the second quickest Camberwell Grammar competitor, thus Lucas sat in first position heading into the second transition. Billy Swingler’s incredible running strength was put on show to finish off the first race of the season with him recording an impressive 18-minute run, passing Lucas and taking out the first position amongst the Camberwell Grammar competitors. As the season progressed, the squad was able to, for the first time in two years compete in the full six races of the series with the added incentive of perfect weather conditions in five of these events. Traversing Port Phillip Bay from St Kilda to Sandringham, the now mature squad of triathletes had a record number of entrants competing in the longer Sprint Distance events with still a strong contingent in the shorter Fun Tri distance. The everpresent camaraderie and competitive nature within the squad enabled several of the triathletes to post season-best times.

A huge congratulation to all triathletes who competed for the School this year. It’s been a treat to watch you all develop and build upon your performances every week at training. Of particular note are the following students that successfully completed all six races: Billy Swingler, Elliot Fry, Jack Dobbyn, Marcus Liew, Kaan Ong, Patrick Watson and Owen Henderson. Furthermore, Patrick Watson was the most improved triathlete of the season, Owen Henderson received the Rookie Award and Lucas Rodriguez was awarded the Collins-Allen award for exceptional performance throughout the season.

In the schools competition, the squad narrowly missed out on 3rd position to finish 4th out of a total of 18 participating schools. This is an outstanding result, however next season will present an opportunity for the squad to further improve upon this position.

Billy Swingler

Captain