About The Club :: History
Triathlon- The Early Days
by John Lykles
When the pioneers of the sport of triathlon dreamed up the idea of a continuous running, biking and swimming race they would have had little inkling of just how big the sport would become in the next three decades.
The worlds first triathlon is believed to have been held on September the 25th 1974. The San Diego Track Club sponsored the event over the very runner friendly distances of 10km of running, 8km of cycling and 500m of swimming.
The event was held at the romantic time and venue of, sunset on the beach. It may have been romantic but it wasn’t very practical. Legend has it that the spectators were asked to shine their car headlights on the surf so the stragglers could negotiate the last liquid leg.
Hawaiian Ironman puts Triathlon on the map.
For the next few years triathlon remained a little known fringe sport probably numbering a few dozen events world-wide each year. In January 1978 John Collins created an event that would change the profile of triathlon forever. It was the first edition of the Hawaiian Ironman and had 12 finishers, hardly earth shattering stuff.
By the next year interest in the event had climbed to 13 finishers including one women. That was all about to change dramatically in 1979. The editors of Sports Illustrated magazine rightly surmised that their readers would be fascinated by what sort of crazies would subject themselves to an open ocean swim of 3.8km for an entrée, bike a 180km for a main course and run a marathon( 42.2km) for dessert in one continuous race.
Following that massive exposure, the race entries swelled into the hundreds. In 1982 one of the big US television networks showed a gutsy Julie Moss collapsing within sight of the finish, when leading the women’s race and crawling to cross the line. Those dramatic scenes fired the imagination of many around the world and triathlon became world famous for 15 minutes.
Triathlon comes to New Zealand
In 1979 triathlon hit our shores in the form of the Les Mills World of Fitness Ironman. I am unsure of the distances involved for the run/swim/bike event held on the Auckland waterfront but they were considerably shorter than the events Hawaiian namesake.
New Zealand embraced the sport of triathlon with a passion. After Rick Faulding became the first Kiwi Ironman finisher in Hawaii in 1982 he went on to become the race director for the first Auckland Ironman event in 1983. It was quite an honour for New Zealand as this was the first I dot M event held outside Hawaii.
Triathlon comes to Taranaki
It was organised by “Tubby” Corkin of the East End Surf Life Saving Club. The ‘source’ (a.k.a. Graham Park) said there were about 30 to 40 competitors.
They swam at Fitzroy Beach and ran up Mangorei Road across Cumberland Street and down Coronation Ave. They headed back to the beach before biking to Oakura and returning to finish at the East End SLS Club rooms.
The first male finisher was Glen Harker. Parksy can’t remember the women’s winner but seems to recall she was blonde and one of her parents was a doctor.
The Traveling Triathlon Circus Comes to Town
On the 12 of January 1986 the Steinlager Triathlon Series came to New Plymouth. By 1986 the distances of 1500 metres swimming followed by 40km of biking and 10km of running had become established as the standard distances and sequence for the sport.
Ninety seven hardy souls plunged into a choppy Ngamotu Beach that day and eighty three would finish the event.
We biked out past Oakura to turn around near Tataramaika and head back to the beach. The run was no namby pamby affair along the Walkway but the scenic trip past Paritutu to the Omata tank farm and back…nice.
Rick Wells beat Brett Marshall across the line that day. It was my first taste of triathlon and I’ve been a recidivist competitor ever since
Lets get organised
With peoples appetite whetted for triathlon and the sport riding a wave of popularity a public meeting was called to gauge the interest in forming a triathlon and multisport club for the people of Taranaki.
On the late winters night of the 25th of August 1987, over 70 people gathered at the Tukapa Rugby Club rooms to discuss the possibility of forming a club.
A committee was elected and officers appointed to the following roles; President, Graham Smith. Secretary, Kathy Lovell. Treasurer, Garry Miller.
Over the next few months the committee went about setting up the club and organising a five race program for the following summer.
On the 22 November 1987 the season kicked off with a short triathlon at New Plymouths Ngamotu Beach followed by events at Ratapiko, Opunake, Hawera and finishing with an Olympic distance race in New Plymouth.
Glen Denchy, Allan Brill and Nick Barrett were race directors at many of those early events. Glen also sponsored a number of the early races through his company Mitchel Cycles. Glen said they used to get up to two hundred competiors at some of the local events.