Wonder of the Tri World
Triathlon crew, prepare for landing. You will be arriving shortly at the Hamilton Island Triathlon where you will swim the waters of the Great Barrier Reef, carve up kilometres of airport runway on two wheels and run by palm trees in soft sand to your finish line destination. It’s an event with a difference and is set to become a race wonder of the tri world.
The Hamilton Island Triathlon (HIT) is not just a race, it’s a week long event of all things triathlon. With a distinct conference feel, participants were treated to workshops from the pros, expert advice and coaching sessions, an ocean swim on world class Whitehaven Beach and a challenging sprint distance triathlon. This is one conference you want to lock in to your 2010 triathlon calendar.
Long term Hamilton Island resident, keen triathlete and photographer Ciaran Handy started kicking around the idea at Mooloolaba 2009. After heading up his wife Karon’s triathlon support crew for years, Handy decided to take the triple sport plunge himself. He went in search of the hows and what fors of triathlon when the idea for the HIT was born.
With Handy’s vast experience in staging events (Hamilton Island hosts more than 700 weddings and hundreds of conferences annually), no detail was overlooked. The brain bank and talent trove of triathlon featured Ironman power couple Belinda and Justin Granger, sports medicine guru Brad Hiskins, sports dietitian dynamo Louise Bell, supercoach of 20 years Dan Atkins, Australian Swim Coaches of the Year Michael Bohl and Stephan Widmar, World Triathlon Champ and dual World Record Holder Miles Stewart, and sports physio pro Victor Popov.
It wasn’t only the newbies and seasoned triathletes participating in the workshops who gained valuable skills and knowledge. Belinda Granger admitted “I was still learning stuff this week”.
