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Newport East Wales Triathlon (NEWT)

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Newport East Wales Triathlon (NEWT) was formed in 2006 following the completion of the East Wales Regional Pool, at the Newport International Sports Village (NISV). The club was established by founding members Kelly Gaffney, Gareth Hall and Rich Davies.

We are a relatively small and friendly triathlon club serving the Newport and South East Wales area. Every year at Ironman Wales, we take over the hill by Kiln Park now known as “NEWT hill”. Look out for the sea of yellow and listen for the roar of cheers.

Our volunteers and membership

The club is run completely by volunteers, who have and still dedicate a lot of their time to help the club grow from strength to strength. From coaches and activators to committee roles, to LTOs and RTOs our volunteers give back to help grow the sport in Wales.

At present our membership is standing at 117, with abilities ranging from complete novice starting out in the sport, to GB Age Groupers, Ironman 70.3 Age Group World Champ and Kona qualifying athletes.

Partner clubs

We are an over 18 adult club and welcome anyone who wishes to take part in triathlon or use the various disciplines of triathlon for training. Newport Under-18s Triathlon (NUTs) accommodates children looking to join the sport and make new friends.

Our coached sessions are delivered by fully qualified British Triathlon coaches and supported by Activators. They are trained to accommodate any level of athlete and help you on your journey whatever that may be. We are also continuing to develop a great partnership with Lliswerry Running Club, of which many of us are already members enjoying the benefits of a dedicated running club.

Our annual events on the race calendar

Our Parc Bryn Bach Aquathlon series (750m swim and 5k run) provides fast flat racing as well as an introduction to open water and multi-discipline events, in a fun and friendly environment. Our values are to provide a local, friendly race mid-week for people to use as good training and race practice.

The four events are run on the last Thursday evening of every month between May and August and provide athletes of all levels a unique and enjoyable experience. Supported by Welsh Triathlon, this year we used May’s race as an internal club tester with a view to holding June, July and August for the wider public. I’m pleased to say entries to June’s race are live and selling fast - go go go!

Our NEWTCracker Sprint Triathlon is held in Newport – NISV every March. It is open to all and sees focus on fun. However, many athletes use this race as a good early season opener and fitness tester. 400m pool swim, 20k fast flat bike and 5k flat run – our friendly volunteers make sure you have a great experience. We hope to see you there in 2022.

Pedalling through a pandemic

The pandemic brought challenges to our club (like all others), but I’m pleased to say we are still thriving and have successfully returned to face-to-face training for the second or third time in 12 months.

The first lockdown saw no face-to-face training for 21 weeks, a first in the history of the club. During this time, we became innovative ramping up virtual training (Zwift, S&C) and running a meet the NEWT blog series and several quizzes to maintain engagement and the wellbeing of members. Our members also made use of the Zwift Welsh Grand Tour Series.

We’ve taken a step back from the virtual world for now. You’ll currently catch us running the parks of Newport, swimming at NISV or Llandegfedd Lake and cycling the lovely routes of the Gwent Levels and Monmouthshire. If you see us, remember NEWTs don’t bite (at least not this kind) so please give us a wave.

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