Triathlon Samoa's constitutional mandate is to grow local athletes, including making sure they get international experience.
Triathlon Samoa's constitutional mandate is to grow local athletes, including making sure they get international experience.
Elite triathletes racing in the World Cup events at the Napier Triathlon Festival may hog most of the limelight this weekend.
But an unassuming group of young Samoan triathletes might argue they are the ones set to benefit the most from a visit to Hawke’s Bay.
The group are keen to show their appreciation to the locals that have opened their arms and helped make it happen.
Ten athletes and two coaches landed in Napier from Samoa on Monday, ready to immerse themselves in a week of triathlon at the Tri NZ Junior Development Camp in Hastings, before they round off the week in a variety of races on offer at Ahuriri this weekend.
And they are ready to embrace New Zealand conditions much different to the challenges they face at home – where just finding a replacement inner tube for a bike can cause headaches, let alone finding somewhere safe to train and race.
Lani Young, Triathlon Samoa secretary general, explains.
“Our challenges are plenty, with few roads safe for biking, no bike lanes, no bike paths, and single lane roads mostly, said Young on the eve of the team departing for New Zealand.
“We bike early mornings and then we often deal with territorial dogs, three or four of them in a pack, that chase cyclists.
“And we have no cycling culture in Samoa, that literally means no bike mechanics or bike shops here and no shops selling triathlon or cycling kit. We have to bring in tyre tubes from New Zealand.
“We rely on tri gear donations from friends and tri clubs in Australia and New Zealand. Our kids learn to ride on secondhand mountain bikes and then graduate to riding one of the Federation’s few road bikes.”
A lack of cycling infrastructure and equipment is not the only impediment to train and compete in triathlon.
Ironically for a Pacific Island country, Samoa does not have great swimming options or swimming culture.
“We have only one public pool in the country. We mainly swim in the ocean and mark out a 50m ‘lane’ distance using fishing buoys, otherwise, it’s a 75m swim to the rocks,” Young said.
“And ironically, few people here know how to swim, with no lessons readily available. So, when kids come to us to try triathlon, we have to start by teaching them how to swim.
“Only one school teaches swimming and that is largely down to our coach Donna being the principal there, not surprisingly her students make up most of the girls in our Tamaitai Tri Programme.”
No surprise then that Samoa Triathlon jumped at the chance to return to New Zealand and is hugely grateful at the hospitality shown by Triathlon New Zealand and the local Tri Club this week.
“We are so grateful to the Samoa Government for the sports development funding that paid for our team to travel to Napier for this event.
“Special thanks also goes to Tri NZ for inviting our athletes to participate in their Junior Training Camp while we are here.
“But, ultimately we could only be in Hawke’s Bay because of the support and hospitality of the Uso Bike Club and the Hawke’s Bay Triathlon Club that hosted our athletes last year and welcome us again this year, with a much bigger group.”
The week of learning and immersing themselves in triathlon culture alongside young New Zealand athletes is a huge step for the young athletes, coaches, and for the sport as a whole in Samoa.
“This entire camp and opportunity is of vital importance to our programme. Our team is 100% local Samoan athletes.
“Triathlon Samoa’s constitutional mandate is to grow local athletes, and part of that work is making sure they get international experience.
“We have our athletes race every month in Samoa - they do a tri and an aquathlon where we try as much as possible to follow a race setup and officiating rules like they will experience when they compete overseas.
“But even with all of that, the fact remains they are only racing each other in the squad because triathlon is still a small sport in Samoa.
“To get better, to go faster, they need competition and different event courses, different racing conditions.”
And there is an added incentive too, with all the Samoan triathletes vying for selection to the Pacific Mini Games later this year, with the Napier Tri Festival event seen as excellent preparation.
Young has no doubt they will make the most of every moment, in camp and in a specially organised mini-tri race on Friday, and in a selection of the events on offer in the Napier Tri Festival on Sunday at Ahuriri Beach.
“The key objective is lots of learning and more race experience. Samoa has four ‘Elites’ and unfortunately, three are currently injured and unable to race in Napier.
“So, this is mainly a development team, where most only raced in their first triathlon a few months ago.
“Several of the athletes literally only started learning in August how to swim and how to ride a bike.
“But they have all worked hard, training consistently six days a week, and made incredible progress and I know they will continue to learn so much while in New Zealand.”
The Tri NZ talent ID and skill building campwill be hostedat Mitre 10 Park Hawke’s Bay in Hastings from Tuesday to Friday this week, culminating in a mini-tri on Friday and a meet and greet with some of the elite athletes in town for the World Cup Napier races.
Tri NZ development lead Chris Willett will host 25 Kiwis and the visiting Samoan athletes, ranging in age from 14 to 18. The camp runs from Tuesday to Saturday and will include a closed roads Super Sprint (200m swim, 5km bike, 1km (approximately) run at Mitre 10 Park.
