Tremains Triathlon raises $18,000 for sport across Hawke's Bay

Bruce Richardson and Glen Yule of Tri Hawke's Bay are delighted with the donation from Tremains managing director Simon Tremain. Photo / Warren Buckland

Hawke's Bay's ability to encourage sporting participation across the region has been given a $18,410-boost from the annual Tremains Triathlon event.

The triathlon has been running since 1994 and has become the largest multi-team event in the region, and with 846 people taking part in the event in March co-organiser Simon Tremain yesterday officially handed over a cheque to Triathlon Hawke's Bay after its most recent success.

"These guys do an awesome job and having our brand associated with this event is really good for us," Tremain said.

"When we started it we just wanted to hitout to the corporate triathletes of Hawke's Bay, trying to get the community involved with our brand and sport. We are always trying to do things to improve it, we had a change of venue this year."

The event continued to grow in popularity, he said.

"There are people out there that have done every single triathlon and have every T-shirt from every triathlon, so it's always a bit of fun."

Triathlon Hawke's Bay general manager Bruce Richardson welcomed the funds.

"It's a big boost for our club and just goes to show triathlon is for everybody and if we can introduce the sport to as many people as we can, it will be fantastic."

Triathlon Hawke's Bay president Glen Yule said the event provided " a great induction" to the sport for people who might not otherwise have considered taking part.

"It's a team event and it caters for all levels of fitness. It's a good lead into triathlon, people do the team event and then they can go on to take part by themselves."

The success of this year's event had been especially welcome, given the event was unable to use Pandora Pond because of the water contamination issue.

Tremain added that planning for next year's event was already under way, and there would be "a plan B" in case a similar situation arose.