Junior Open Water Update

Due to the fact that it’s been the coldest April on record for the last 10 years, the South East and London Regions have decided to make the first two sessions at Liquid Leisure land based. Coaches will be on hand to give advice on all aspects of open water swimming. This will consist of basic skills, advanced skills and course evaluation.

TriSport coaching will be taking bookings for all the open water swimming sessions and can be contacted on: 020 8722 4617.

If you require any further information please contact Martin Allen, South East Regional Coordinator on 07968 070528 or via email on: martin.allen@southeasttri.org

Message From New RDM

I would like to introduce myself as the new Regional Development Manager for the South East. I am extremely excited about this role, and I am gradually working my way around the region.

It's a really exciting time for the South East as we also welcome the addition of two development coaches. We have some great events in the region this year with the Corus Elite Series in Reading, the Inter Regional Championships at the end of August and not forgetting the Corus Kids of Steel on the 20th May.

I look forward to meeting you all over the coming weeks and months. In the meantime, please feel free to contact me, get involved or just suggest ideas for developing the sport in our region.

Kat Valk, TESE Regional Development Manager
Mobile Tel: 07834542085

Regional Championships 2008

The TESE region is extremely pleased to announce the launch of the inaugural South East Region Triathlon Championships, to be held at Dorney Lake, Eton on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 July 2008.

The Championships are being integrated into the Human Race events during the weekend and are expected to attract over one thousand competitors. The event is set to to showcase some outstanding racing from many of the UK’s leading triathletes, across individual and team entries.

This exciting development has been launched by the regional committee with the support of Human Race, in response to the significant rise of triathletes within the region. The South East region has around 44 clubs which is almost 20% of the national total of UK triathlon clubs.

The Championships are open to individuals and club members, living or working within the South East Region. Racing will take place over two days offering individual, team relay and Team Time Trial entry categories over the Olympic distance. Check out the TESE homepage for entry forms and full qualifying criteria.

Martin Harris, Chairman of the South East Region, commented, “We are delighted to be working with Human Race to host the Regional Championships. Our aim is to increase partcipation, clubs, members and coaches across the region and the Championships not only give our triathletes the opportunity to have a goal to work towards but to continue to raise the profile and level of the sport.”

Committee Meeting April 2008

The latest TESE committee meeting was the best attended I can remember with 8 individuals meeting to try and develop the sport in our region. Kat Valk, our new regional development manager, met the committee members for the first time and is very enthusiastic about her new role. We shall be hearing from Kat herself on the blog soon. Nick de Mayer, the new Senior Development Coach also attended and was equally motivated with new and fresh ideas for triathlon in the South East.

As we head through April and the 2008 season starts to crank up in pace a lot of us are getting focused on racing. The region however also has some early season challenges with the Corus Elite series coming to Reading on 18th May and the Kids of Steel event at Crawley K2 on 20th May. Two high profile events within a week and that is where the focus is for the committee and for the new triathlon employees in coming weeks. In addition we see the first race in our Youth series on 18th May at Bicester and on the 11th May we have the first Tri Star Multisport race at Crawley K2.

Beyond that we have a great opportunity for coaching this year in the region with the addition of the two new development coaches. We are hoping to put together a regional coaching conference at some stage this year so we can get coaches in the region swapping ideas and the very latest thinking.

The full minutes of the meeting shall be available on the TESE website shortly.

Dan James, TESE Secretary

Regional Development Coaches

As part of a regionally funded initiative by Sport England, Triathlon England has today announced the deployment of fifteen regional coaching positions across the country.

In the south east region we can welcome two individuals who will be focusing on developing 'age group' and 'club level' triathletes from Tri-Star (8 to 14yrs) through to adult level. The Regional Development Coaches (RDC's) will add an important structure to grassroots development:

Nick De Meyer is the new adult coach and Christian Vaughan is our new youth coach. Nick will be running sessions to introduce triathlon to beginners and help drive up participation levels. Christian will initially play a major role in readying children for the Corus Kids of Steel event at the K2 Leisure centre in Crawley on 20th May 2008.