Hamish Bidwell
They may produce performers of elite quality, but the Hawke's Bay Multisports Club is anything but elitist.
Despite an active membership of just 50 people, the club continues to boast a number of past and present national representatives as well as organising events for thousands of competitors.
But as development manager Jeanette Cooper says, it's the way they cater for everyone from entry to international level that sets them apart.
She says that's reflected in all sorts of ways, right from the awards dished out at the club's recent prizegiving, through to the preparations on race day.
"We've got eight athletes at our club who have been selected for the World Championships in Hawaii this year," Cooper said.
"Five of those eight will be able to attend and those that aren't have represented New Zealand in past events. So we cover every aspect of triathlon from entry level people who have never done any sport before in their lives, right through to international and national level.
"And I tell you what, if you turned up on a Sunday and did a race you'd be hard-pressed to figure out who were the international representatives, because we don't have a pretentious approach at the club and everyone's welcome.
"We held our prizegiving at the end of April for our whole season, which was an overall acknowledgement of performance and some of them showed huge improvement over the season.
"We try to recognise effort and improvement and also have our volunteer of the year.
"This year our volunteer was someone whose husband races and who has no interest at all in racing herself. But she comes along and enjoys being involved and we encourage that social aspect."
That drive to be more inclusive will result in the club staging three "Bloke Free" triathlons this year, in the hope of attracting more women to the sport. Cooper says it is an area of huge potential growth for triathlon, but one which Hawke's Bay was struggling to serve.
"Two of them will be held in pools for those women that are scared of swimming in the open water," said Cooper.
There will also be six races in the ASB Ironkids duathlon and triathlon series, which is seen as another way to get the whole family involved in triathlons. She says the demands of training and racing can make it a fairly solitary sport, so emphasising the social and family aspect is seen as a great way to keep people participating.
At the top end of things, Barry Payne, Naomi Edwards, Ann Robottom, Ian Clark and Tony Harding will represent New Zealand in their particular age-groups at the World Championships on October 8.
Cooper says the club is always on the lookout for more people to join the fun and anyone who would like to know more about it can log on the Hawke's Bay Multisports website at www.hbmsc.org.nz.
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