TRIATHLON ENGLAND SOUTH EAST BLOG

Annual General Meeting 2008

2008-10-26T12:58:00.011Z

Today the TESE Annual General Meeting was held at the K2 Centre in Crawley, Sussex.

Our Chairman, Martin Harris, led the meeting which included his Chairman's report of the year. Treasurer, Mike Green, gave details of the income and expenditure of the region and Kat Valk, Regional Development Manager, provided a summary of development efforts and challenges.

A new consitution for the committee was also ratified at the meeting to bring it up to date following changes in the national governance structure which introduced the new Triathlon England governing body.

All governance documentation including minutes will be added to the TESE website for inspection by all members.

All committee members were re-elected into the same roles with the exception of Derek Bowley who was replaced by Chris Roberts as Coaching Co-Ordinator.

South East IRC Team Victory

2008-09-03T21:06:00.006+01:00

They have now won the Mazda Inter Regional Championships four times in a row.

The South East region held onto their title in the Mazda British Triathlon Inter Regional Championships on Saturday following a series of six exciting races across Tri Star and Youth levels. The defending champions held off challenges from Scotland and the improved Eastern region who finished second and third respectively.

The championships were held at the sports centre at Aldershot Garrison which will be the holding camp for Team GB when they gather before the London Games in 2012. The athletes swam in a 50m pool before completing a technical bike course around the barracks. The racing continued with a run combining grass and track.

The race proved to be a success for the South East off the field of play as well as on it. Triathlon England South East Region hosted an excellently organised event, thanks in particular to the Irish Guards, Trisport Coaching UK the local sponsor, Farnham Tri Club and Martin Allen the event organiser. Special thanks also to Sarah Coope, Team Manager and Bodyworks for the fantastic support they gave the athletes.

During the presentation of the medals and awards British Triathlon Federation Director, Ian Braid, announced that in 2009 the Mazda British Triathlon Inter Regional Championships will be held at Bryn Bach Parc in Tredegar, Wales. Next year’s race will include an open water swim for the first time and be staged on the course used in the Corus Elite Series.

Results of the 2008 Championships:
1. South East
2. Scotland
3. Eastern
4. North West
5. London
6. East Midlands
7. Wales
8. West Midlands
9. Yorkshire and Humberside
10. South West
11. North East

IRCs Venue Change

2008-07-12T12:14:00.003+01:00

British Triathlon and Triathlon England South East would like to announce that the venue for this years Inter Regional Championships, to be held on Saturday 30th August, has been changed.

The event will no longer take place in Crawley, a new venue at Aldershot Garrison has been found. British Triathlon and Triathlon England South East recently became aware of an unexpected issue with the course at Crawley, leading us to locate a new venue within the South East.

We apologise for any inconvenience this causes to competitors and their families, but rest assured that the new venue at Aldershot will provide the opportunity for some excellent racing.

The first race of the day is scheduled for 11am, with the event finishing by 3pm.More event details including a full detailed race briefing document will be available within the next few weeks. Team managers should speak to their Regional Development Managers if they have any questions.

Committee Meeting June 2008

2008-06-17T23:19:00.001+01:00

We had some guest members at the meeting tonight. John Muddeman and Andrew Bell from HQ events department joined for a while to discuss the IRCs. The IRCs took up a lot of the meeting discussions. We also looked at the childrens series and coach education issues.

Kids Made of Steel

2008-05-20T18:22:00.005+01:00

Around 400 children proved they were made of steel today at the K2 centre in Crawley. The children, aged between 8 and 13 completed a triathlon as part of the latest Corus Kids of Steel national initiative. Girls and boys from all over the south east pulled on their swimming trunks and running shoes to get fit.

The Kids of Steel event was the first in a national series of 12 organised by British Triathlon. The emphasis is on children participating for fun and just trying the sport. The pupils put in hard effort to complete the triathlon course which included a 75 metre swim, then a 1.5 kilometre bike and finished with a 1.5km run.

Other activities for the children were available on the day including the British Cycling ‘Go Ride’ initiative which helped them with bike skills.

Kat Valk, Regional Development Manager for Triathlon England said: “The feedback we have had from this event is amazing. The kids loved every minute of it. We also owe Thomas Bennett school in Crawley a big ‘thank you’ for their help in creating the event"

Bannatyne's Banbury Sign Up

2008-05-04T12:56:00.004+01:00

Bannatyne's Banbury have agreed to incorporate triathlon events, challenges and training into their programmes. They will be assisted by Cherwell Triathlon Club member, Richard Hughes, with assistance from Kat Valk the TESE Regional Development Manager and the National Project Manager Dewi Winkle. The club realises the opportunity to retain and entice new members as well as recognising benefits of family events and the social aspect the sport has to offer.

For information or advice on setting up triathlon related activities in Health Clubs email dewiwinkle@britishtriathlon.org

First Disabled Accreditation

2008-05-02T17:35:00.004+01:00

St. Mary's Tri Club has become the first club from the South East to achieve the Triathlon England 'Disabled Triathlete Inclusive Club' accreditation.

Dean Baker, the club's senior coach has completed the BTF Coaching Disabled Triathlete coach education module. He is delivering fully inclusive disabled training sessions. The club also hosts a fully inclusive event as part of their commitment to the developing disabled triathlete opportunities.

For more information about St. Mary's Tri Club please contact Dean by email at Db241162@aol.com

For more information about becoming a Disabled Triathlete Inclusive Club, please contact Julian Wills on julianwills@britishtriathlon.org

Junior Open Water Update

2008-04-22T20:07:00.004+01:00

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

2008-04-19T10:41:00.006+01:00

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

2008-04-18T13:32:00.008+01:00

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

2008-04-15T10:46:00.009+01:00

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

2008-04-03T18:03:00.009+01:00

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.

Junior Open Water Swimming

2008-03-26T16:28:00.004Z

British Triathlon South East and London region in association with TriSport Coaching are pleased to announce five open water training days for all junior athletes. This is to coincide with the first official open water swim for juniors at Dorney Lake in July.

Thanks to Mike Trees of Triathlon Consultants and 2XU our juniors will be able to swim and practice their open water technique at liquid leisure in Datchet. These sessions will be coached by the South East and London Regional Coaches. Youth from the London Region will also be joining us for the sessions.

The dates are as follows:
3rd and 10th May 2008
7th and 14th June 2008
5th July 2008

The cost for each session is £3.50. TriSport Coaching will have some 2XU wetsuits available for hire with an option to purchase. The start time is 6.00am and the session runs for approximately 1 hour.

Martin Allen, TESE Youth Series Regional Co-ordinator

Chairman's Report 2007

2008-03-18T10:23:00.009Z

2007 saw the inauguration of Triathlon England as the membership and development body for the sport of Triathlon in England. Triathlon England South East (TESE) remains the largest region in terms of population catchment (8 million approx), number of events (122) and race starts (over 20,000).

In order to continue to provide growth and improved member services a Regional Plan has been prepared in order to document a strategy and Key Performance Indicators to assess achievements versus plan. This will be a rolling document, revised and updated into the future.

The continued hard work by young athletes and volunteers within the region resulted in a third consecutive win for the South East at the Inter Regional Championships in Glasgow. Congratulations to the whole team.

I am pleased to report that a fourth victory may be possible on home turf in 2008 as the Board of the British Triathlon Federation has awarded the South East the opportunity to host the IRC. The successful bid is based around the K2 centre and the provisional date is August 30th. Well done to all involved in the bid and thanks go to John Thraves, Director of Community Services for his endorsement of the bid. Opportunities for our high performing young athletes were taken forward this year by the addition of a Regional Talent Coach, Glen Cooke.

2007 also witnessed the first national series of triathlon introduced events for children. Sponsored by Corus, and under the banner ‘Kids of Steel', every Triathlon England region promoted one such event. In the South East this event was held at Crawley K2. Despite conditions threatening to thwart best laid plans the event went ahead successfully and VIPs including the Worshipful Mayor of Crawley, the Director of community services for Crawley, the President of BTF and the Chair of TE were able to view over 600 children enjoying an introduction to the sport.

2007 Regional Awards were as follows :
TESE Coach of the Year: Paul Holmes
TESE Official of the Year: Jane Vine
TESE Volunteer of the year: Martin Allen
TESE Event of the Year: Urbanrace Brighton Triathlon
TESE Club of the Year: Farnham Tri Club

And finally….I would like to say a huge thank you to Jude Ford, who leaves us in November to take up a post with UK Sport. Her enthusiasm, drive and hard work has been key to the development of the sport in the South East in the last 3 years.

Martin Harris, TESE Chair, October 28th 2007

Welcome To Our New Blog

2008-03-16T00:39:00.006Z

A very warm welcome to the first post on our new Triathlon England South East (TESE) regional Blog. Why have a blog? Well it seems a good tool for us to communicate news about the region in a bit more detail and in a quick and easy way. Within the new structure of Triathlon England more emphasis is being placed on the regions to be more active and structured. In the 2 years that I have been on the regional committee I have seen it grow from a very small informal group to a more engaged and active committee. Our TESE Chair, Martin Harris, is our representative on the council of Triathlon England under the new TE structure and we definitely have a more engaged and fluent flow of communication and ideas as a result.

However, there is lots more work to be done to embrace the potential of our sport both on the ground and in administration. The key as ever lies in volunteers. The sport requires people to 'do stuff'; from the one off volunteering at events to the regular commitment of individuals at committee meetings and sub committees. From the coaches who are developing themselves and their athletes and the event organisers who are building teams and endlessly planning. The sport simply needs people to 'get involved' and it needs the skills that are out there within the membership. As an example we have had a media officer vacancy on the committee for as long as I can remember yet a small amount of input in this area would really help promote the sport. Understandably people are busy in modern life (especially triathletes) and extra unpaid work is the last thing on an individual's mind but the fact remains any such community contribution is extremely rewarding. It has also surprised me when talking to some members that they are not aware of the regional committee and its workings and goals. I hope that this blog will help improve awareness and in another small way contribute to the development of our sport and all the positive things it stands for.

Dan James, TESE Secretary