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Focus on Tri Purbeck

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The Purbeck hills provide an outstanding area for triathlon training with quiet country roads of varying gradients and multiple beaches. But it also boasts a vibrant and engaging triathlon club.

TriPurbeck was set up in 2010 by Fran Bungay with the help of the BTF and the goal of developing a community based triathlon club that encouraged both adults and juniors of all levels to take part in regular training and where appropriate compete in triathlon. The club is based in Wareham, Dorset – a small market town with an apparently deep pool of talent!

Under the guidance of Fran, who is now a level 3 BTF coach and BTF coach tutor, the club has grown quickly with a current membership of around 200 athletes and a strong junior contingent.

There are 3 coached sessions every week – 2 swims and a Friday evening session which is a run for adults and bike/run for the kids. All sessions retain the initial goal of being open to athletes of all abilities and they have become very popular with the Friday night session regularly attracting more than 50 athletes, often in family groups! As a result, the club has developed a strong group of coaches with 2 additional level 2 and 5 level 1 coaches. In addition to this, there are multiple spin off group sessions including 2 bike groups and additional squad swimming sessions for the competitive athletes.

The Purbeck hills provide an outstanding area for triathlon training with quiet country roads of varying gradients and multiple beaches. This may explain the success of the clubs athletes. Fran herself has 8 major championship age group medals and is the current European 70.3 champion in her age group and as head coach of the club and through her coaching business www.goalspecificcoaching.com , she has personally coached multiple world and European medallists and champions – all from Dorset!

The original goal of providing opportunities for junior athletes has led to the development of a spin off junior squad for athletes interested in competition at regional and national level. This has proved both popular and successful and the club now has an elite national junior duathlon champion in Serena O’Connor.

We run multiple junior triathlons and duathlons to encourage the juniors to have a go at racing from tristart up and these have been very successful in the local area. We also run the TriPurbeck Sika Duathlon – an off road event in the beautiful Wareham Forest, which recently featured in T220. All the details of upcoming events and more news about the club are available at www.tripurbeck.com

Above all, the club tries to retain the ethos that triathlon is for anyone that wants to have a go and is really good fun!  

 

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