The Mid Sussex Triathlon Club held its annual and very popular Awards Dinner on Saturday 24th November at the Talbot Pub in Cuckfield. At this evening event, awards are made for the Trifest event at the August Bank holiday weekend, the best all rounders, the best athlete, a number of special awards, and the Performance of the Year Award.
TriFest
At the very popular Trifest, which is held at Ardingly Reservoir, the women's events were won by Rebecca Tromans (Sprint), Rachael Baker (Olympic distance) and Kate McTear (Middle distance), whilst the men's events were won by Jo Fleming (sprint), Neil Giles (Olympic distance) and John McTear (Middle distance), who was beaten by his daughter Kate.
Best All Rounder
The Long Distance Best All Rounder Awards over 5 different events went to Gunter Eifler in the men's section and jointly to Clair Hunt and Lara Shoesmith in the ladies' section. In the short distance best all rounder events, the winners were Mike Hook in the men's section and jointly to Ricci Lennon and Julie Williams in the women's section.
The best Athlete Award for 2018 went to Phil Couch in the men's section and to Emma Smith in the womens section.
Club Awards
The Club Member of the Year Award went to Morwenna Hook for her huge efforts behind the scenes in getting the Bronze Trimark accreditation and her general stewardship of the club's management committee.
The Most Improved Athlete Award went to Merrin Forbes who took part and did really well in the long distance Arun and Adur swim events.
The Coach of the Year Award, which is voted for by club members, went to Neil Giles, by a close margin, for his huge efforts, encouragement and enthusiasm.
The Spirit of Triathlon Award went to Amanda Durrant. Although Amanda failed to complete the Hever Bastion Ironman in the allotted time (only 2 club members have completed this over the last 5 years), Amanda went on to enter the Dartford Night Time Ironman event only 2 weeks later and did brilliantly.
There were really only two contenders for the Performance of the Year Award, Kate MacTear and Jim Graham, who both had outstanding achievements during the year.
Kate won just about everything she entered. Her performance at the TriFest Middle Distance was breathtaking. She also won at Hever, and then took a podium finish at Weymouth in atrocious conditions.
Jim meanwhile won his age group at the Boulder Colorado Ironman, and then was ready for the World Championship at Kona in Hawaii, only to get an appendicitis about 6 weeks before. And it was a complicated one! But Dr Jim is modest: "It's only a flesh wound!" He made it to Kona, and put in another incredible performance of 10h 36m 55s. Jim won the Club's Performance of the Year Award by just one vote. Congratulations Jim!