Armidale Triathlon Club Schools Teams Challenge

On Sunday 13th of November, six triathletes representing St Mary of the Angels school, Guyra, competed in the Armidale Triathlon Club Schools teams challenge. Teams from Uralla, Walcha, Ben Venue, TAS, PLC, Armidale City, ASC, St Mary of the Angels (SMOTA) participated. Teams selected one person from each team to do a leg of running, swimming and cycling.
SMOTA entered two teams.
Team 1- Camilla Grills (Swimmer), Olive McFarlane (Runner) and Tom Graham (Cyclist).
Team 2- Flynn McFarlane (Swimmer), Sam Reeves (Runner) and Myles Cox (Cyclist).
Team 1 came 4th out of the Mixed Primary Schools category and Team 2 came 5th out of the All Boys Primary Schools category.
The following is Olive’s description of how the races unfolded:
“Camilla and Flynn started off the event as the swimmers and dived into the pool flawlessly, Flynn first and Camilla not far behind him. Their assigned role for their team was to do 4 laps of a 25 metre pools which added to be 100m swim.
This was a clean sweep of their leg and they soon ripped out of the pool. Flynn as effortlessly out passing the tracker over the line and into the hands of Myles who was the cyclist for their team. As he mounted up the ragged track, Camilla flew out of the large pool and whipped the tracker to Tom who within a split second was on his bike and trekking up the never-ending hill in record time.
The required length to ride for these young chaps was 5 kilometres which was drawn out, but quickly blown away as the astounding teams that were taking the Top 5 places flipped from on top of their bikes and battened the tracker to their runner. Half of the race was already demolished spotlessly and leaving the running leg of the race which was a miniscule length of 1 kilometre.
The cycling leg of the race for Team 2 (the shorties) was completed successfully by Myles as he merged closer and closer to their team’s runner Sam. A quick change was made by Myles clipping his bike to the rack in seconds and tossing the tracker to Sam as he flashed past the start line of his leg. Some students from astonishing teams were already on the horizon from the finish line and clapping came hurricaning from the crowd. This didn’t stop Team 1’s cyclist Tom, as his legs pumped down the hill without pause and unstrapped the tracker. Olive was Team 2’s runner who whizzed past the start line without flaw and was exiting the gate into the challenging but muscle-building track. All of the cyclists and runners had finished their leg and were understandably puffed out in joy. As they watched fluorescent blurs in the distance, runners came in hot with a strong finish like they were sprinting the whole way round. Cheers! Chants! Applause! Came booming in from supporters for a job well done. After a few strong runners that swept away a clean 5 minute race, Sam, Team 2’s runner, crossed the finish line with a flash in his heart, twinkle in his eye and most of all, a ginormous smile. The boys from his team and many others surrounded him and huddled for the success and happiness they went through. Although it was happy days from then on for Team 1, Team 2’s runner, Olive, was yet to come as she bounded from the bottom of the horizon and grew a bigger figure in the distance. She crossed the finish line with speed and stamina and (I can’t argue), a grasping breath. Everyone cheered and this created new confidence and motivation for the last few runners to cross the finish line.”