Members of Wight Tri Club celebrated the 2016 triathlon season at the AGM and Awards Evening at the Albert Cottage in East Cowes.

After the formality of the AGM and a fantastic Xmas dinner provided by Albert Cottage, the Chairman, Joe Norman welcomed the presentation of the awards.
The first set of award, The Wight Tri Club Triathlon Championship, the Duathlon Series Award and The Splash and Dash Series Award which are awards decided on nomination timed events throughout the season were presented to Richard Bulmer, Craig Wilson and jointly to Sean Williams and Joe Norman respectively.
The next awards are voted on by the club members and were presented by individual members of the triathlon club.
The Male and Female Triathlete of the Year Awards were presented to Joe Norman and Liz Dunlop.
Joe was delighted to receive this award after a very intense year of training in his quest to complete his very first Ironman triathlon at Vichy in France. Having only taken up the sport of triathlon in the last few years and from a very novice swimming background to complete a 3.8km swim, followed by a tough 112mile cycle and then one of his toughest marathons was a fantastic achievement and honoured by the club members.
Liz’s award put the finishing touches to a brilliant year for Liz. 2016 began with Liz winning Age Group Silver medals in the British Sprint Triathlon Championships and the English National Standard Distance Triathlon Championships and finishing off with a Gold medal at the European Sprint Championships in Lisbon and 2 Silver medals in the World Aquathlon and Sprint Championships in Cozumel, Mexico in September. As first GB athlete, she qualifies automatically to compete in these championships in 2017. Liz was also nominated for the British Triathlon Federation Age group Female Triathlete of the Year award.
The Duathlete of the Year Award went to Sean Williams who represented Team GB for the first time at the World Duathlon Standard Duathlon Championships in Aviles, Spain and finished in 8th position in his age category and 4th GB athlete. Again, Sean is relatively new to triathlons and duathlons so to achieve such an excellent age group position in such a short time is an amazing achievement.
The Percy Veerance Award was awarded to Mary Norman for an awesome performance in her first ever Ironman Triathlon at Vichy. Mary finished 9th in her age group in a fantastic 12hrs 36mins, showing that her intense training schedule and her strength of character over the longer distances paid off as she paced herself impeccably to such a fantastic achievement. She also achieved several podium places in shorter distant triathlon events as she prepared for her Ironman event.

Jan Fletcher won the Golden Crank Award, which is awarded to the person who makes the biggest faux pas whilst competing in a triathlon. Unfortunately, Jan learned the hard way, when competing at an event in the New Forest. She got carried away with the traffic ahead and followed the cars into the Beaulieu Boat Jumble.. losing valuable time and possibly a podium place..

The final award was sponsored and presented by two of the clubs most experienced triathletes, Steve Dines and Liz Dunlop. The award for the Most Improved Athlete was also won for the first time by Jan Fletcher. Jan has trained extremely hard this year, whereby she has achieved improvements in all triathlon disciplines, culminating in achieving several PB’s and also the qualifying time and a place on the IW Island Games Triathlon team. She has also gained several age group podium places in local triathlon events.
At the AGM, the following committee members were elected for 2017.
Chairman – Steve Dines, Vice Chairman – Sean Williams, Secretary – Jan Fletcher, Treasurer – Anne Dines, Event Co-ordinator – Joe Norman, Press Officer – Liz Dunlop, Welfare Officer – John Gardner.

New Chairman, Steve Dines thanked the outgoing chairman, Joe Norman and secretary Michaels Mills for their work over the last few years.