Triathlon Australia announces five new State Performance Centres

Triathlon Australia, July 4, 2014: Triathlon Australia has today officially announced its five new State Performance Centres as it continues to strive for sustained international success on a competitive world stage.

The governing body’s High Performance Program, under the direction of National Performance Director Bernard Savage, called for nationwide expressions of interest from coaches/programs.

In a vibrant market, Triathlon Australia High Performance (TAHP) received 14 applications with the five successful State Performance Centres going to:

• Carina Leagues Triathlon Club (Carina, Brisbane, QLD). Head Coach: Warwick Dalziel.
• Performance Triathlon Coaching (Canberra, ACT): Head Coach: Corey Bacon
• QAS State Performance Centre (Albany Creek/Lawnton, Brisbane, QLD). Head Coach: Josh White
• Rehula Performance Training (Melbourne, VIC). Head Coach: Jan Rehula and;
• Sheldon College (Sheldon, Brisbane, QLD) – Head coach: Chris Lang.

The five centres will receive direct financial support with agreed allocation of funding investment for the next two years from TAHP as well as being recognised as Triathlon Australia State Performance Centres (SPC).

“The establishment of our five SPCs is an important element of our new High Performance Plan,” said Savage.

“They will be critical to our ability to meet our long term contribution to Australia’s ‘Winning Edge’ investment.”

The SPC Head Coaches can officially use the title “Triathlon Australia State Performance Coach” and they will be actively involved in the design and establishment of the new TA National Athlete Pathway Framework (NAPF) as well as assisting with National Development Camp, NTA camps and National Performance Standard time trials.

It is anticipated athletes that have been selected for the National Talent Academy (NTA) program and/or have been categorised as an “emerging” or higher category athletes will be coached free of charge within the SPC environment.

Triathlon Australia’s National Manager High Performance Pathway, Craig Redman is excited with the appointments.

“The key thing for us is that we know that athletes working in a daily training environment, working face-to-face with coaches, developing long-term relationships have the greatest success,” said Redman.

“And a lot of the athletes working in these environments are well on the way to having good progression; they’re the ones working daily in that face-to-face environment “This is about recognising those key environments and creating those opportunities for the athletes and the coaches by investing where those coaches are working daily face-to-face.

“Camps are great and we know that when we bring (National level) athletes together it brings out the best in them and already we have seen this in the National Talent Academy camp on the Gold Coast recently with personal best times in the pool and on the track.

“But we know it’s the daily training environment that has the greatest impact on the athletes.

“The bread and butter is done with the home coach in the home environment.

Day in day out, week in week out - that’s what we are investing into.

“It is recognition for the coaches and the environment they are providing.

“It’s a very strong stepping stone for those coaches moving forward.

“Here are five recognised State Performance Centres that are aligned with our National pathway and provide an invaluable link into National Performance Centres.

“We wanted to invest in coaches that are investing in themselves, in their own programs and investing in our performance pathway.

“We were very happy with the calibre of coaches that applied and there were some very good coaches that missed out but the pie is only so big and can only be divided into so many parts.

“We did not look geographically - we assessed each application on its merits and have awarded the best applications with the designation of State Performance Centre.

“As an example the one application from NSW did not meet our criteria.

“But it is not to say that if someone comes along and warrants recognition that we won’t look at it.”

Issued on behalf of Triathlon Australia by Ian Hanson