East Fife Triathlon Club goes from strength to strength

An ever increasing membership has helped the side develop and the achievements of the local youngsters has now gathered national recognition.

Over the weekend the team won ‘Best Small Club’ at the Triathlon Scotland Awards ceremony in Glasgow.

Overall, the club ranked third nationally, beating much bigger, and more established clubs.

A club spokesman said: “It’s a really lovely, positive, welcoming club so we’re delighted.

“The club didn’t exist a couple of years ago and we’re already third in the whole country against much bigger clubs like Glasgow and Edinburgh.

“The award was the culmination of gutsy performances all year.”

In the first event of the season, at Allendar, the young athletes arrived to find the transition area being dug out of deep snow.

This didn’t deter them and the got their gear on and got on with it regardless.

At the National Championships in Glasgow they had to contend with torrential rain and hail, which made the bike section particularly treacherous.

At one of the final races of the season – the Craggy Island triathlon – the weather was so challenging that the sea swim had to be cancelled.

The overall team performance was underpinned by some exceptional individual achievements.

In the aquathlon category, Robbie Philips won third place nationally in the boys’ eight and under category.

Maddy Wallard placed third (11-12 females), Anna Hedley first and Ruby Methven second (13-14 females), Natalie Curran second in the Aquathlon Youth category.

For triathlon, Ruby Methven also picked up third place in the 13-14 female age category.

There were also strong performances across the whole team, including Darcy McIntosh, Reilly McIntosh, Jamie McDonald, Cammy McDonald, Katie Smith, Jack Anderson, Beinn Anderson, Emmy Wallard, Amy Hargreaves, Sam Jaffray, Libby Smith, Hjalmar Struck, Isla and Freya Hedley and Liam and Rebecca Black.

Not to be outdone by the junior members, club coach Brooke Gillies also raced in the Scottish Student Aquathlon Championships, being crowned as female student champion.

The club spokesman added: “East Fife Tri Juniors is an exceptionally inclusive local club, involving around 80 children ranging from 7 to 17.

“The club focuses on the culture, enjoyment and teamwork of sport, but this leads to incredible dedication and high performance by the children.”

Head coach Elise Methven added that it’s been a positive experience to see the local youngsters grow in stature during their time with the north east Fife group.

She said: “It has been wonderful to see the children grow in their confidence and ability throughout the season.

“For such a new club we have been overwhelmed by this current success and are looking forward to next race season already.”

The north east Fife club is always interested in inviting new members along.

For more information on how to get involved, please email to [email protected]