Please find below a list of all the Triathlon England South East Region Awards.
A huge congratulations to all the awards winners listed below. Each winner and everyone nominated has played a massive part in the success of the South East Region and we salute you all.
| Award | Winner | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Adult Volunteer | Clive Harvey |
Clive has been Chairman of Tuff Fitty Triathlon Club for almost 25 years. Clive's dedication to the Club is second to none, and he spends hours compiling regular newsletters detailing everyone's achievements; greeting new members; updating the website; formulating policy & ensuing regular training events take place for all. He also plays an integral part in organising the Club's own annual race, open to all, the 'Frosty' & 'Frostbite'. In addition to this, Clive is also a Technical Official for Triathlon England, and on the organising team for Raw Energy Pursuits. His selfless commitment to the club means his personal training is secondary, but he achieved a Triathlon England Bronze, Age group medal, at Eastbourne Middle Distance Tri this year. |
| Junior Volunteer | Izzie Miller | Izzie started her involvement with Chichester triathlon club as an 8 yr old training and racing with the club for 5 years. Health issues prevented her from continuing her training but she carried on coming to the junior sessions to volunteer and help the coaches initially as part of her D of E course and now has become an integral part of our committed coaching team. Izzie has been volunteering with our large juniors club for two years, she works mainly with the T1's and is a fantastic role model for these young athletes. Izzie recently completed the BTF Young Activators course helps coaches setting up sessions, assists in bike, run, strength and conditioning and games. Izzie shows great initiative and emotional intelligence and is able to give support to young athletes who may be struggling to focus or with a particular skill during a session. Izzie is a fantastic female role model and has a great bond with her group of juniors, she has built a good rapport with them and they trust and rely on her. Izzie has also volunteered to help marshall at club and other local events. She always shows positivity, warmth and encouragement clapping and cheering others along. All the club coaches agreed that she should be nominated as a thank you for her commitment to the club and the sport. |
| Technical Official of the year | Dave Nelson | Dave registered and officiated at several events during 2022 often picking up events where there was initially no Technical Official (TO) available. He assisted in training new Local Technical Official’s (LTO) to complete their shadow assignments. Dave achieved his shadow events to gain his Regional Technical Official (RTO) qualification. He gives detailed reports after each event and also provides social media reports for the facebook page. He ensures that events run to plan and is enthusiastic and a valued member of the South East TO team. |
| Club of the year | Ocean Lake Triathlon | Ocean Lake Tri have been a prominent community club based in Kent, it is run by volunteers who continually host weekly coached sessions for all those who have an interest in Multisport. The club is inclusive, accommodating new members all the time and helping them get a foothold into triathlon and multisport. Over the last few years, the club has supported members by freezing membership payments to help during covid and the cost of living crisis, the coaching is free for members and run by a team of volunteers. The club is a great asset to the community and has also begun to take on junior and youth athletes. Without this club many triathletes in the community would be training solo and would not have found their tribe. |
| Junior Coach of the year | Dean Painter | Dean gives hours and hours of his time to coaching the juniors at Medwaytri which has resulted in growing the junior section from non-existent to dozens of children across four squads. Dean's main focus is the performance squad, where there are 11 athletes competing in the super series, one athlete on the para triathlon pathway and several competing at IRC level. This year, athletes he has coached from 8 years old achieved first and second as Youth A females in the super series, with one athlete going to the European Youth Championships. Behind all of this, he is 100% there for us throughout all of our training, whenever we have injuries or need our bike fixing, or if we are having a brilliant season or a wipeout season. |
| Outstanding award | Paul Hedger | Exercise as we know is so important especially for children and families and Paul has run affordable Children’s events for many years. He has created the KidsTri Series that runs each year and is very popular with the Children and their families. Come rain or shine it is always a fun day with a strong 'community' feel. Paul has thought of many changes to the events over the years focusing on keeping costs low and making environmental improvements. He has the clear trust and confidence of the children and does an excellent briefing keeping their attention. Many attending adults and children are happy to volunteer their support as marshals if not otherwise racing. We want to show our appreciation for Paul’s tireless planning and organisational skills to create events second to none. He assists other small event organisers to understand and run children’s events. From his informative and fun web page, the additional video footage of the day, to the end of year presentations - he thinks to include everything and everyone. He is supportive of BTF and is also a Technical Official. Paul made an excellent speech at the Bognor Triathlon close to the death of our Queen and amazing it was amazing watching all the kids observing a minutes silence. Only a true leader can grab that number of kids attention for a minute! |
| Children’s event | Kids Tri series | Kidstri Series (which is brain child of Paul Hedger) organise fantastic fun triathlons for children each year which are affordable. Nominations were given for individual races in the series and also the series its self. The events are very well organised, there is excellent communication in advance and the events always run according to plan. I have attended events by other organisers and definitely Kidstri really stand out. They are an excellent team that always pull together. The events are managed and run in a truly supportive environment and make it fun! Paul and the team do a great job of also helping the children to take responsibility for their own race and of prompting parents to give the children space to do their own thing and have their own race. Many children have enjoyed the series and, whether they carry on with tri or not, these races have been a great confidence builders and good fun for the whole family. For example, Billingshurst children's event held in East Sussex on Sunday 02 Oct 2022 speaks volumes in support of Paul's dedication and enthusiasm in promoting affordable triathlon/duathlon/aquathon events! In particular, although it absolutely poured down with rain throughout from the start, 113 of the expected 115 still attended with verve and enthusiasm. |
| Small Event | Channel Triathlon | The Channel Triathlon is run by the local Rotary club and they put a significant level of time and effort into the planning, organisation and logistics of the event. Being a sea swim there was much to arrange. They listened to suggestions for improvements from previous years and the event ran smoothly. Feedback from competitors was positive and the Rotary Club should be recognised for their efforts to run the event. |
| Large Event | Eastbourne | Matt and Dale – 2 experienced triathletes – set up Tribourne Multisport and are the event organisers for Eastbourne triathlon and the event had 43 nominations. Tribourne also had over 20 nominations each for 2 of their other events. |
The TESE Region committee are looking forward to another superb season and celebrating those that make it happen in 2023.
