Second time lucky as Bassetlaw Triathlon Club awards night finally takes place

Bassetlaw Triathlon Club members at their belated annual awards night.

After the first attempt to hold their annual club championship celebrations were washed out in October, Bassetlaw Triathlon Club members final got the chance to enjoy the event over the festive season.

The most competitive season since the pandemic, members had completed a huge range of events covering all the different distances across the whole country and abroad.

Members had to submit their finishing times and this was taken as a percentage of the event's winning time to calculate certain scores.

Head coach Gav Toulson said 2023 had been one of the best seasons in the club's history and many members had trained hard to complete all the events entered.

His choice for Female Triathlete of the Year was Hayley Ellis, who having trained for a year towards a full Ironman distance, had the misfortune for the event to be cut short due to bad weather.

Undeterred she trained for another12 months and returned in 2023 to complete her Ironman event.

Gaz Hughes was Male Triathlete of the Year for another year of consistent training and performance over a range of different distances.

The Long Distance event winners were Matt Quibell and Kat Wisniewski, whose times gained them entry to the World Championship event at Kona, Hawaii.

All the club's members had a vote in the Triathlete's Triathlete award, which went to Adrian Hopkinson, who was a newcomer to the sport two years ago but had an ambition and plan to complete an Ironman event. His consistent effort levels rewarded with him seeing all the hard work paying off in 2023.

Adrian also took on the role of event director and led the club to one of its best Sprint triathlon events, held last summer at the Yourspace Leisure Centre.

Club chairman, Steve Bowler said it was great to see the club flourishing after the difficult pandemic period, again highlighting the success of a huge number of club members who entered and completed many events over the year.

His choice for Chairman's Award went to Jane Sheridan, whom he said epitomised the ethos of the club, giving her all to training, supporting the committee as well as entering events where Jane herself has said 'if I come last I don’t mind'.

More details at www.bassetlawtriclub.co.uk or www.facebook.com/BassetlawTriClub.