TRIATHLON VICTORIA
T
he Triathlon Victoria Awards Breakfast held on Sunday
30 April provided triathletes, their families, friends,
coaches, technical officials, staff, sponsors, Race
Directors, Life Members and Legends of Multisport a
joyful event to celebrate the 2016/17 triathlon season.
Key awards were presented, recognising triathletes for
their performances, coaches, volunteers and officials for their
efforts and recognising triathlon legends of the past. Brooke
McCullough (Tempo Systems), Luke Burns (Mornington
Peninsula Triathlon Club) and Oscar Dart (Elite Triathlon
Performance Australia) were crowned the Youth/Junior
Athletes of Year, after their outstanding performances in the
Australian Junior Triathlon Series.
Attendees were lucky enough to hear not only from Rio
Olympian Kate Doughty, but from newly inducted Victorian
Legend of Multisport Jo King! Back in the nineties, Jo was
nicknamed “the sponge” for her dedication to learning to train
and compete as a triathlete. She first appeared on the radar
in 1995 where she made the world junior team in Cancun. In
1996 Jo blitzed the junior scene winning the junior race at the
ITU World Championships at Cleveland USA. In 1997 Jo won
the National Open Sprint title and had three top tens at World
Cup races. In 1998, Jo broke through into the senior ranks
winning the ITU World Championships in Lausanne, on the
highly technical and very hilly Lausanne ahead of
Michellie Jones.
Jo King was the youngest woman to win a Triathlon World
Championship, and the first woman to win both the Junior
and Open World title. Jo’s triathlon career then easily moved
towards Long Course racing where she had many success
including finishing second in the 1998 Ironman Forster (which
was 23rd out right) with a world record female debut Ironman
time. Jo also had a 5th at the 1999 Worlds at Montreal, 1st at
Ironman Roth and 9th in Hawaii. In 2000 Jo went back to Kona
and came 11th and in 2001 she created a course record at the
Forster Half IRONMAN.
Annually, Triathlon Victoria partners with Swift Carbon and
Race Directors from selected events to deliver the Victoria
Triathlon State Series. The series is designed to encourage and
reward both affiliated clubs and individual members to race
more often and across the variety of multisport disciplines
and triathlon distances. Twenty-five individual age group
State Series Champions were recognised and 2016/17 again
saw the dominance of Bayside Triathlon Club and Geelong
Performance Coaching who took out the Victorian Triathlon
Club Shields for large and small clubs. Triathlon Victoria would
like to thank Swift Carbon, SME360, Sole Motive, The Event
People, McPherson Multimedia Group and the Echuca Moama
Triathlon Club for the support of the series throughout
the season.
At the end of each season, Triathlon Victoria calls
for nominations from members for the Most Inspiring
Performance Award. The award highlights a one off or overall
inspiring performance. This year’s winner was Aaron Galley
from the Hawthorn Triathlon Club. Six years ago, Aaron was in
a transport accident where he lost all function of his right arm.
As a 23 year-old, he faced some terrible challenges in coming
to terms with the fact he would never use his arm again.
Several operations and years later, Aaron took up triathlon.
Since then, Aaron has become a real clubman of Hawthorn
Tri Club, where you will never ever hear him complain or
use his disability as any kind of excuse. Fellow clubman Nick
says “in fact he proves the opposite – that with motivation to
constantly improve, you reap the benefits in life. He completed
his first 70.3 at Challenge Melbourne and an inspiration to so
many at the club with a philosophy like so many triathletes -
just keep turning up and stepping up”.
One of the highlights of the Awards Breakfast is always
the Presidents Special Recognition Award, which is an award
that recognises an individual, group or organisation that has
made a significant contribution to Victorian triathlon over
a significant period, or through a single achievement that
has contributed to the profile of the sport. This year two
individuals were recognised for their work building the sport
of triathlon Nadia Mellor and Bruce Baddeley.
Nadia has been a member of the Albury Wodonga Triathlon
Club for 25+ years and a permanent committee member since
the club’s inception. Involved on every level of the club, Nadia
excelled in her commitment to encourage women to triathlon.
Almost a decade ago, Nadia partitioned the club to include
a women's only triathlon, long before such things became
popular! The Albury Wodonga Women's Tri isn't about entry
fees and putting on a race, every dollar from the entry fee
goes to a local female charity to support local women going
through hardship. The event has now donated to nearly all the
female charities locally, from Breast Cancer, to supplying wigs
for ladies losing their hair with Chemo, to setting up a room
for nursing mothers at the local maternity unit, to supplying
specialised equipment for ladies suffering the effects of
cancer treatment. Nadia spends almost 6 months of the year
organising this one event in November and hosting training
sessions to help the ladies who have signed up. Year after year
the event is sold out with a waiting list. Evident of the ongoing
contribution is that this year for the first time the club had a
54% female participation the season ending mini triathlon. In a
sport where many of the events are male dominated, this is a
huge achievement.
Bruce started up the triathlon program at Penleigh and
Essendon Grammar School (PEGS) over 10 years ago. This
program has grown immensely over the years and currently
has over 80 students and their parents competing in events
during the school tri season. He has developed the program
into one that is admired and respected by many other schools
in Victoria and PEGS have taken out the Co-ed Victorian
All Schools State Championships every year, but one, since
its inception. It is common whilst watching a tri event for
someone to tap him on his shoulder and say, “Do you
remember me?” “I am here competing because of you”.
Congratulations to all award winners and thank you to
everyone in Victoria for dedicating their time and passion, like
Nadia and Bruce, towards triathlon and its participants.
AWARD WINNERS
• Male Junior Athlete of the Year Award
Oscar Dart (ETPA) & Luke Burns (MPTC)
• Female Junior Athlete of the Year Award
Brooke McCullough (Tempo Systems)
• Most Inspiring Performance Award
Aaron Galley (Hawthorn Triathlon Club)
• Club Coach Award
Stephane Vander Bruggen (GPC Squad)
• Technical Official Award
Peter Aldridge
• Club Volunteer Award
Christian Stegweuit (Bayside Triathlon Club)
• President’s Special Recognition Award
Nadia Mellor (Albury Wodonga Triathlon Club) &
Bruce Baddeley (Penleigh & Essendon Grammar School)
• Legend of Multisport Award
Jo King
• Victorian Triathlon State Series Shield (Large Club)
Bayside Triathlon Club
• Victorian Triathlon State Series Shield (Small Club)
GPC Squad
• Victorian Triathlon Cub Performance Award
GPC Squad
VICTORIAN TRIATHLON STATE SERIES CHAMPIONS
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12-15 years – Hamish Munro & Olivia Forsythe
16-19 years – Daniel Bodilly & Karla Bell
20-24 years – Calvin Amos & Ally Duff
25-29 years – Brendan O’Loughlin & Shari Livingston
30-34 years – Aiden Rich & Carla Aldcroft
35-39 years – Brad Jones & Michelle Bond
40-44 years – Stephane Vander Bruggen & Louise Shaw
45-49 years – Raymond Joy & Kirsty Johnson Cox
50-54 years – Daryn James & Miah Franzmann
55-59 years – Kevin King & Sharon Bolger
60-64 years – Philip Hanley & Maureen Grant
65-69 years – Kevin Bell & Jenny Merrick
70+ years – John Allen
MULTISPORT MAGAZINE | 53