28 Jan '18: RESULTS IM703 BC

Sunday 28 January 2018, East London

Just when we thought we are going to have a nice cool run in light rain, the dreaded headwind on the return leg returned, blew away all the clouds, and delivered a sunny, hot run leg.  East London always delivers to ensure that at Ironman 70.3 South Africa Buffalo City finishers can claim completing one of the toughest 70.3 events in the World.  Competition was tough this year with athletes vying for slots to Ironman 70.3 World Championships, to be held in Port Elizabeth later this year.  ATC’ers delivered some great results and we congratulate the following on claiming their slots:  Rohan Meyer, Bjorn Pienaar, Marco Stichini, Jonty Low, Tyron Ingle, Alexandra Antonakis, Linda Detering, Bettina Van Wyk and Kirsty Blackford.

Apart from most of the ATC’ers present at the award ceremony, who went on stage to claim the Ironman TriCLub Division II Champs Trophy, the following made individual appearances in their age categories:  Rohan Meyer (3^rd 25-29), Annah Watkinson (5^th Lady, Pro), Alexandra Antonakis (2^nd 30-34), Linda Detering (2^nd 18-24) and Bettina Van Wyk (2^nd 55-59).  Congratulations to these members and all the ATC’ers who completed the event.

Ironman TriClub Champs

We are the Ironman TriCLub Division II Champs for Ironman 70.3 South Africa!  Thanks to valuable points collected by members who have signed up under the TriClub ATC - Atlantic Triathlon Club.  We’ve had many questions about how the TriClub Divisions work.  There are five Divisions, split according to number of registered Triathletes who participate in Ironman events (any distance).  Division I is for over 200 athletes.  ATC (Division II, 126-199) has way over 200 Triathletes and, in a given year, we will have more than 200 athletes doing an Ironman event.  Unfortunately, not all our members doing Ironman events have registered for the TriClub program, or, have registered under another “TriClub” (MPG, MTD, etc).  We don’t have a problem with members wanting to support their training groups but would like to motivate members who have not joined the TriClub program to sign up. 

Signing up is free and there are some great benefits, varying from event to event, such as:  Priority racking (great for the older age categories), special race caps, club area, etc.  Late last year TriClub introduced free entries based on the number of TriClub entrants. 

Through this, ATC has benefited from three entries for the Half Ironman 70. 3 Buffalo City and two for Ironman SA Port Elizabeth.  There isn’t much time between these entries becoming available and race entries closing / filling up so careful planning will be required to maximise benefit from this and to ensure that loyal athletes, who enter early so we can rack up the numbers, also get some benefit.   So, going forward, we will use some of the funds generated to reward loyal TriClub point scorers:

We will make the entries available to athletes who have not entered yet for a reasonable donation.  We will then have a lucky draw for entrants who entered before the TriClub cut-off date.  Selected entrants will then receive funds to contribute towards their next Ironman event entry fee.  This will also support the aim behind this benefit, which is to encourage and reward participation in Ironman events.

Ironman 70.3 – ATC’s Results: