Kids get early taste of enduro sport

GETTING INTO STRIDE: Alysha Donovan and Emma Hutchinson will be using this weekend's Ray White Allens Kids Triathlon as a warm-up for the New Zealand Secondary School Triathlon in Taupo.

The Ray White Allens Kids Triathlon is known for being an event where Northland triathletes get their first taste of the sport.

The annual triathlon is back tomorrow with more than 500 keen 7- to 15-year-olds taking part.

Murray Healey, head coach and director of the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain SBR tri-kid programme and development squad, said the triathlon was known as the event where triathletes like Northlander James Edwards, who competed in the age-grade section of the 2014 ITU World Triathlon Series Grand Final, got their start.

"I remember him doing the kids triathlon when that started out years ago ... There's a few others too, like young Rachel Edge."

Mr Healey runs training sessions for the Kellogg's Nutri-Grain SBR development squad designed to take keen young athletes to competition level.

"This is for the ones who have decided they want to do it competitively. All of them [in the squad] started off doing the kids triathlon."

Alysha Donovan and Emma Hutchinson, both 12, are among the 12-strong squad. They started doing the Ray White Allens Kids Triathlon and now compete in national and regional triathlons across the country.

"We'd done school triathlons but that was our first proper triathlon," Miss Donovan said.

The two have been involved in the sport from the age of 7 and said they had known they wanted to do it competitively ever since that early start.

"It's always been one of my favourite things to do and it's one of the main sports [I'm involved with]," Miss Donovan said.

Both girls placed in the Northland Secondary School Triathlon last Saturday - Miss Donovan winning gold and Miss Hutchinson bronze.

Tomorrow's race will act as a warm-up for the girls, who will head to Taupo next weekend to compete in the New Zealand Secondary School Triathlon. They said that through the development squad they had become stronger.

"Some days we do swimming training on Tuesday at 6.30am and Thursdays we do all types - swimming, biking, running and even a mini-triathlon for 30 minutes non-stop and we just keep it going. Or [we do] bike training," Miss Hutchinson said.

-The event is from 9.30am to 1.30pm and runs along Beach Rd. The following will be closed from 8am-2.30pm: 400m southwest of Pah Rd to the intersection of Scott Ln and Beach Rd, Mason St and Cliff St. Also affected by the closure will be Weir Cres, Scott Ln and Hill St.