Welcome everyone, 2017 has been a busy and successful year, for the East Midlands region.
Our membership continues to grow and within our region we have 2,356 members. This is split 1/3 female and 2/3 male and of the 2356 members, 77% belong to a local club.
The number of clubs within our region, remains healthy with 54 Clubs registered in 2017 and of this number, I am pleased to report that 17 clubs have a thriving junior section, some with waiting lists.
For the 37 clubs who do not have a junior section and who have thought about starting one, we are keen to help you if we can, by giving you support and helping you link up with another club in your area who is running a junior section and that has the capacity to help you get started.
Furthermore, as part of our commitment to help the clubs within our region, over the coming off season we will be holding a series of sub-regional club forum meetings where we will look to discuss and share some of the challenges and good practices for growing sustainable Triathlon clubs, along with improvement and accreditation programmes.
Within the East Midlands region there were 98 events in 2017 with 37 (38%) of these being local GO TRI events, aimed at show casing our sport and encouraging people to participate. I would encourage any club who has not yet tried a local GO TRI event to put one on, Dave Padgen the Regional Manager for the East Midlands is available to help you with planning and logistics.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the regions technical officials (or Race Referees) and our regional co-ordinator Donnah Thompson for their contribution to making this year’s racing run smoothly. Our region, has some of the most dedicated and talented TO’s in the country and as such they are able to ensure your races are safe and fair.
This is also true of the 100’s of marshals who give their time in order that you can compete. Next time you are at a race please take the time to say hello and thank them for their time as without them, the quality of races would not be as high as they are.
A big part of the help which Triathlon England can give to your club is coaching, and we continue to provide outstanding coach education. In the last year within our region we have delivered…
• 2 Level one courses, 29 participants, who graduated and went back to their clubs to share their knowledge.
• 1 level two course, 16 participants who graduated with new skills to share.
After Christmas we are planning to put on 2 further Level ONE courses and 1 further Level TWO course. Watch out for details on our website and social media.
We also introduced new specific training, aimed at novice triathletes and those getting started with ‘Introduction to Tri days’, and over the past year within the region we have delivered…
• 4 Novice Open Water days at Race Hub, 47 participants in total
• 2 Women only days, both in Nottingham, 22 participants in total
• 2 generic days, 15 participants in total
We intend to build on these in the coming year. Again, watch out for events close to you and your clubs. My message to you is to GET involved.
An important part of the regions development is aimed at advancing the skills of our Junior Athletes, ranging from the age of 8 to 16, a lot of whom are here today to pick up an award for their efforts in the East Midlands Race Series.
We do this by involving them within the Skills School and our Regional Academy programmes, their joined-up approach to identifying talent and nurturing this by running development days and specific coaching programmes, helps bring on the athletes within a world class environment, helping them reach their fullest potential. The first Development squad skills school day is on 5th November.
Over the past year, Skills School has run 11 training days, reaching 283 Junior triathletes and helping to develop 48 local coaches via ongoing CPD workshops.
We intend to build on this on in the coming weeks and months and into 2018 and again keep an eye on the website site for more information.
With regards to the East Midlands Regional Academy 2016/17 race season, I am very pleased to report that we had another successful race season with 2 of our Youth girls finishing 1st and 2nd in the super series. With the Youth boys, having a top 5 finisher, also in the super series.
In August, a team travelled to the Junior European club relay championships that were held in Spain, where they finished 2nd overall.
Looking forward to the 2018 European Youth Championships, that are to be held in Greece, we have a female Youth athlete who has qualified, and I hope to be reporting this time next year, on her success.
The Academy trials which took place earlier this month, for the 2017/18 race season, resulted in 15 Academy athletes and 14 Development squad athletes being selected. I am sure that you would like to add to my congratulations, to those who have been selected and wish them well for the ensuing year.
A major part of our role as your regional committee is the organisation of the East Midlands Junior Race Series. Culminating in the best being selected to represent the East Midland in the fiercely competitive Inter Regional Championships.
This year has been challenging in many aspects and it has to be acknowledged that we have at times fallen below the high standards we expect of ourselves. I can assure you that we have learnt from these and are building capacity in how we deliver the 2018 Junior Series and how we communicate with you all.
Looking at the 2017 East Midlands Junior Race Series, 225 athletes competed in the series, representing 13 different clubs within the series. In the East vs West Midlands Series races, I am pleased to report that we won!
In this year’s Inter Regional Championships we came 3rd overall with 1 podium athlete – Thomas Dixon coming 3rd in his age group. Lizzy Edge narrowly missed out in a sprint finish in her age group and came 4th in her age group.
One of the outstanding highlights for me and the 120 junior Athletes from our region, who were invited as VIP’s, was the Nottingham Mixed Relay Cup. The event was televised live on the BBC and our junior athletes lined the start/ finish shoot to welcome athletes.
This was an outstanding event which I am pleased to report will be back next year!
New for 2018. We are at an advanced stage with the planning behind an East Midlands Team Championship race; the make-up of the team will be 1x male plus 1x female and 1 junior in the team. We are partnering with Huub for this one-off race and it will be included in the Staunton Harold race weekend in June 2018. Regional Adult Race; more details to follow.
In closing, I would like to thank you all for your support and wish you all the very best for the duathlon season and for the 2018 triathlon season ahead and to thank Tom Bishop for agreeing to present the awards to our worthy winners.
--------
Jamie Gordon
