Wastewater overflow forces cancellation of swimming leg at kids TRYathlon in Auckland

Kids run along the beach at Pt England Reserve as the Weetbix TRYathlon is reduced to a duathlon after the swimming section was cancelled due to poor water quality. Photo / Alex Burton

Rain over the weekend dampened a kids’ TRYathlon event in east Auckland when overflowing wastewater led to the swimming leg being abandoned.

“It hasn’t even been heavy rain so god knows what the story is… it’s so disappointing for the hundreds of kids who have been training.

“It’s pretty crazy they need to change an event at the last minute when there doesn’t seem to be any reason for the wastewater overflow,” said one mother.

The school kids, aged 6 to 15, attended the sold-out event, which was revised to a run/bike/run format seeing them run in their shoes along Pt England beach before entering transition for bike and then run.

Parents were contacted last night and told that the swimming event had been cancelled.

Kids participating at Pt England Reserve in the Weet Bix Tryathlon. Photo / Alex Burton

“Unfortunately our contacts at Safeswim have just advised us that ‘we have detected a wastewater overflow in Pt England at about 8:30pm tonight’. This means the beach will be black-flagged for 48 hours,” the Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon team told families.

This is the second year running that the event at Pt England has been hit with a black flag alert on Auckland Council’s Safeswim website.

Last year, the event was rescheduled from early February to March 26 when contaminated waterways from flooding across Auckland occurred.

Open to kids aged 6 – 15 years, the TRYathlon caters to all fitness levels, with a focus on participation and giving it a try. TRYathletes are required to swim, bike, and run their way around age-appropriate courses.

The Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon, now in its 33nd year, is the world’s biggest triathlon series for kids aged under 16.