When the new committee at Dubbo Triathlon Club took over they were keen to put an emphasis on junior development.
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The first part of the long-term plan to have more people moving through to senior competition comes around on Sunday with the return of Tri-Stars Junior Triathlon Series.
A junior triathlon was last held in 2014/15 but Dubbo Triathlon Club secretary Ben Orford is delighted to have it back.
“It will take a few years to start seeing them move through (the age groups) but you’ve got to start somewhere,” he said.
“This will be the first of three races and each of those will offer three distances depending on ages and ability.”
There will be an under 7s division where the children will have to just swim across the toddler pool, then cycle for 100m and run 100m in what will be the first event for many of the youngsters.
The next age group is a school-age competition, with competitors there ranging from roughly seven to 12 years of age. Those competitors will have to swim for roughly 25m and then bike and run 250m each.
The oldest age group is for early high school students or advanced talents and they will have to swim from somewhere between 50-100m while that is followed by a 1km cycle and 1km run.
“Then we’ve got an adults enticer afterwards to give the parent something to do and that’s just a 200m swim and a 2km run.”
Orford said there have been promising online registrations for all events and more can register by visiting the Dubbo Triathlon Club website.
Competitors are also able to register to compete on the day.
The junior action starts from 9am.
In terms of other senior events, the postponement of last week’s meet at Cowra means there will be an extremely busy Central West InterClub Challenge period in thew New Year.
The InterClub event at Cowra was abandoned after heavy rain and will now be staged on January 21.
That is one week after the Bathurst leg and one week before the event at Orange while the final round is held at Dubbo’s Ollie Robbins Oval on March 18.
“We realise this will not suit everyone but we tried to choose a date that didn’t interfere with other races,” a post on the Cowra Triathlon Club Facebook page read.
The first leg of the InterClub series was held at Mudgee.
While there is a wait to compete regionally, there is still plenty happening locally.
“Before that we’ve got a club race on Sunday the 17th (of December) at Ollie Robbins and we expect up to 20 people competing there,” Orford said.