Virtual coaching is far from ideal but Frome Triathlon Club showed it can bear fruit at September’s IRONMAN event in Weymouth.
Head coach Christian Coates hosted remote sessions and virtual races during Covid-19 lockdowns, with members unable to train together for months on end.
It left Coates and his athletes unsure of how their hard work would show up when they finally returned to full competition.
“I did some virtual events at the club to try and keep everyone motivated, towards the end of the last year, to try and keep everyone active and everybody just upbeat,” says Coates. “It was one of the toughest times for my own athletes but also for the club.
“It was tough keeping people actually motivated when the events were just crumbling, just being cancelled right, left and centre. One of my main events has been deferred for two years now so I’ve had to try and keep myself motivated, let alone the club.
“I realise how hard that’s been. You’ve got people training six months for an event that might not actually happen and that is really tough.
“Things are slowly coming back together, I’m slowly watching Frome emerge from the ashes because they’ve finally got their membership back in and things officially start again next week.
“They’re going to hopefully go straight into the next year and pull their membership back.”
With events now opening back up, Frome had a strong showing at the Weymouth IRONMAN last month, with ten members in action.
After being out of action for such a long period of time, Coates was delighted how his athletes performed at the 70.3 event.
He said: “Frome have always been represented at Weymouth so well.
“To have a club outing like that, and actually what’s happened over the past couple of years it’s been stunning to see an event actually happen and not be deferred.
“As a coach, that’s what I want to see. I want to train people for those events and once we’ve got events happening again and opening up like normal, it will be stunning.
“To see everyone at Weymouth and IRONMAN, 2,000 people all racing together and safely was just amazing to watch.”
There was one stand-out performer in particular at the event as Frome member Joanne Bousefield came first in her age group, and has now qualified for the World Championships, again set for St. George, Utah in 2022.
Coates said: “It was just one of those magical moments and for a club looking at that it’s incredible, to produce those sorts of athletes is amazing.
“It’s just great for the club. We’ve had a few of the club members qualify for world championships over the years, but Joanne was a little bit special.
“She struggled a bit with IRONMAN in Wales a few years ago with a daunting sea swim so she doesn’t really enjoy that environment, but we did a day out a few weeks before the event with a sea swim with myself leading and ten others.
“After the swim she came out smiling and that was it. We watched her go from whatever position she was after the swim to fourth or fifth after the bike and first on the run. It was stunning.”
