All eyes will be on the Jervis Bay Dolphins and the Kiama Coasters once again on that first weekend in November, at Tri Husky.
That will be Round 1 of the Triathlon NSW Forager South Coast Triathlon League for ICL05 and looks set to be the fifth battle in the ongoing friendly war between the Dolphins and Coasters.
We are down to five Clubs this season due to the Highlands Shaggy Cows jumping across to the newly formed Triathlon NSW Forager Hume Triathlon League.
The Kiama Coasters may be on top in their tussle with Jervis Bay at Club Champs, but in the South Coast Triathlon League it is the Dolphins on top, having won the last three editions since the Coasters secured glory during the inaugural season.
“JBTC will be pushing for its fourth ICS win in a row. We know that will be extremely difficult, especially with the unknowns associated with the new list of Performance Points Races,” said Jervis Bay club president, Rod Rose.
“Our focus this year is growing the club, enfolding our longer distance athletes better and building a juniors program. Communication within the club is a key to our strength and success – we try to keep people motivated with plenty of interesting competition related thoughts via social media. And of course, regular training sessions and coffee catch ups”.
This is by no means to suggest that there is no competition from outside the top two. The Illawarra Cannons and the Shellharbour Mariners have made inroads each season and surely it is only a matter of time until one, if not both, end up in a tussle with the two big hitters for South Coast honours.
For Illawarra, it has been slow and steady progression. Never far away but lacking in the consistency that is required for a sustained title push. It appears that as Interclub awareness has increased, the Cannons edge closer to the summit. This could be the year that the Cannons fire – they certainly have enough top-class athletes within the vlub to pull it off.
Finally, we have the Shellharbour Mariners – the smallest Club in the competition by size of members, but certainly not by heart or talent. The Mariners always pull one or two top notch performances out of the bag each season. Not quite enough to compete towards the pointy end of the ladder, but enough to be an important and fantastic contributor to the South Coast comp. Although revered for its junior section, the Mariners are getting older as a Club and therefore, more competitive across race distances that secure Performance Points within Interclub. The natural progression for the Mariners is to start banging on the title door as these juniors age and support the superstar Age Groupers that the club do have.
After the opener in November at Tri Husky, we see one more event on the Calendar in 2022, The Callala Triathlon.
Round 3 is the much-loved Husky Triathlon Festival. This year the Sprint, Classic and Ultimate distances will all score Performance Points. Round 4 will the Batemans Bay Triathlon with the penultimate round being held at the Wollongong Triathlon. The sixth and final round will be the bumper double points round in Forster at the Triathlon NSW Club Championships.
Usually, it comes down to the last event of the season to decide where the trophy heads, it shouldn’t be any different this season either. The only question being, will it be the Coasters and Dolphins battling it out in Forster or will somebody new crack the code.
