There was a great turnout for Worcester Triathlon Club’s annual dinner that took place at The Vale Golf Club on Saturday 9^th February.

The evening kicked off with a three course meal followed by speeches from our club chairman Duncan Jenkins and Jodie Brandwood from St Richards Hospice whose charity we are supporting this year.

The first awards of the night were presented to the club juniors by Henry Walker and Olympic bronze medallist Graham Brookhouse. The outstanding performance prize was awarded to Jack Raine and Nixie Turner and the most improved award went to Brad Law. The junior squad has been going from strength to strength and as a thank you for their commitment, they all received a Worcester Triathlon club beanie hat and drawstring bag.

The senior awards were presented by our guest speaker Clare Woodward. This year, the senior club champions were Rachel Ward and Dan Geisler, who achieved great results at a number of selected races last season. The female triathlete of the year award went to Ellen Hemsworth who also picked up the Arran Stevens cup for most improved triathlete. The male triathlete of the year went to Neil Wicks after achieving excellent ironman results last season. The international triathlete of the year was Neil Crump who achieved a top 10 position at the European Championships as well as breaking 10 hours at Challenge Roth, which is an iron distance event.  The Howard Peters Trophy for the club aquathlon at Upton Warren was awarded to Ros Townsend-Hope and Gary Jarvis.

The event was a great success and thoroughly enjoyed by all. Thanks must go to Les Bailey and Phil Parsons who put in a lot of hard work to organise the evening.

Worcester Triathlon Club is now offering a “Triathlon front crawl for beginners” course.
This is a four hour course over 4 weeks that introduces the fundamentals of swimming front crawl.  Aspects covered include breathing, pulling and the basic body position for effortless swimming. It is expected that all swimmers are confident in deep water and able to submerge their face whilst swimming.

Over 80 members and guests of Worcester Triathlon Club attended the Club’s annual dinner and awards ceremony at the ValeGolfClub on Saturday night to celebrate the 2011 season.

The guest speaker was current and six-time World Aquathlon Champion Richard Stannard who after an entertaining talk presented the club awards.

Firstly the club’s thriving junior section members were awarded with special effort awards for all of their hard work in training and competition throughout the year.  Individual junior awards then went to Jordan Prust – Most Improved Junior (sponsored by St John’s based technical sportswear manufacturer Scimitar Sports); Tom Charles, winner of his age group in the Worcester Duathlon – best male junior performance; and Nixie Turner, third overall in her age group in the West Midlands Junior Aquathlon and Triathlon Series – best female junior performance.

Senior club champions were Iain Jennings and Ros Towsend-Hope.  The Triathletes of the Year were Iain Jennings and Michelle Parsons, Parsons having finished 8^th overall in the 2010/11 World Powerman Series. The International Award went to Henry Walker who qualified for the World Ironman Championships in Las Vegas and finished 52^nd out of 107 in his age group.   The Arran Stephens award for the Most Improved Triathlete went to Kirk Denton.  The Howard Peters award for the Fun Race at Top Barn Farm went to Mike Ward and Joanne Tanner.

Commenting on the evening, Club Chairman Duncan Jenkins said ‘Worcester Triathlon Club goes from strength to strength with our members competing locally, nationally and internationally and our junior and senior members notching up significant successes.  We have developed our swimming coaching, both pool-based and open water and are looking to further improve other aspects of our training this year.  I’d like to invite anyone interested in participating in the sport in any way to join our growing membership and take advantage of all the Club can offer’

Triathletes Celebrate a Record Year

Worcester Triathlon Club held its annual dinner-dance and awards ceremony at the Vale Golf Club on Saturday night.  Club membership now stands at an all-time high of over 100, reflected in the eighty-plus members and guests who attended the evening.

The guest speaker was Bromsgrove-born Tom Lowe who in his first Ironman event in Arizona last year broke the British record with a time of 8 hours 11 minutes 44 seconds to take third place.  Tom spoke about his early years in Worcestershire, his career in the army and of taking time out to train full-time which allowed him to compete to the high level he achieved in Arizona.  Now working full-time again Tom was able to impart invaluable advice to club members on how best to combine work and training.

Chairman Duncan Jenkins then invited Tom to present the 2010 club awards.  The Howard Peters award for the Fun Race at Top Barn Farm went to Lisa Powell and Ethan Hunter.  The Arran Stephens award for the Most Improved Triathlete went to Neil Crump who completed 20 endurance races to raise money for MS research.  The International Award went to Kevin May who completed three Ironman events including a sub-10 hour finish in Switzerland.  Club champions were Richard Gourlay and Michelle Parsons.  The Triathletes of the Year were Tom Watts and Ceris Styler.  Finally the junior awards went to Rachel Powell for Most Improved Junior (sponsored by St John’s based technical sportswear manufacturer Scimitar Sports); Nixie Turner, who won the West Midlands TriStar 2 series, was voted best female junior performance, while David Jubb who won the West Midlands youth series, picked up the junior male performance award.

Finally, willing volunteers Lisa and Chris Powell, Andy Turner, Chas Taylor, Phil Parson and Les Bailey were rewarded with the Chairman’s ‘Good Egg’ awards for their contributions to the running of the Club.

To round off the evening a T-shirt signed by Tom Lowe was auctioned and raided £33 for club funds.

Commenting on the evening, Club Chairman Duncan Jenkins said ‘Our members represent Worcestershire across the UK and internationally and it was great to see such a good turnout to celebrate a fantastic year for us in 2010 and in particular to see so many of our junior members taking part in the evening.  We are looking forward to another successful season this year’

For more information on Worcester Triathlon Club visit www.worcestertriclub.co.uk