Page 27 - Demo

27In March 2011 two of the swim staff, Gillian McAlister and Jo Lewis, started High March Triathlon Club with an ethos of %u2018having fun and keeping fit%u2019. At this time legendary triathletes Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee were at their peak, winning world and Olympic medals and introducing triathlon to the masses. High March was one of the first independent schools to offer a triathlon club and it took another 10 years before Triathlon became part of the IAPs sports competitions.Triathlon is an exhilarating multi-discipline sport involving a continuous race in the three disciplines of swimming, cycling and running. Besides being an excellent way to keep fit, triathlon is an inclusive sport that encourages children of all abilities and that can help raise their self-esteem and sense of achievement. A standard triathlon is made up of a swim, followed by a cycle ride, followed by a run. At High March, Triathlon Club includes all things swimming, cycling, or running. We compete in duathlons (cycling and running), biathlons (swimming and running) and triathlons. We also do cross country running, including the Halloween fun run, and have a parkrun leaderboard. A flavour of the 2024/25 academic year is as follows:%u2022 In September 16 pupils from Years 5 and 6 represented High March in a Biathlon (swim / run) at The Royal Masonic School for Girls. High March Year 5 A Team (Amber, Primrose, Harriet and Livleen) were narrowly beaten into 2nd place. In Year 6 High March A Team (Evie, Iris, Alice, Sofia) finished 1st ahead of Berkhamsted, RMS, Maltmans and St Helen%u2019s.%u2022 Davenies duathlon, postponed from October due to weather, took place in March with a team of 18 from Years 4, 5 & 6. Year 6 took all 3 podium places with Iris taking top spot. In Year 5, Harriet finished in 2nd place.%u2022 In May, a team of 18 raced in the Hatch End Triathlon where we dominated the podium taking all 3 places in TriStars1 and 2 of the 3 places in TriStars2 with Primrose and Iris taking top spot in their respective events.%u2022 16 girls from Years 4, 5 & 6 qualified for the British Schools Biathlon Championships, a national event with finals, held in March, at the University of Bath. High March Year 6 (Zoe, Evie, Alice and Iris) came 2nd as a team with Zoe finishing in the top 10 individually.%u2022 In May, a team of 8 from years 5 and 6 raced at the IAPs Triathlon championships. This is a tough event and takes place in the beautiful grounds of Monkton Prep. This year, and amongst many other competitors, our Year 5 girls were racing against Princess Charlotte while the Prince and Princess of Wales and the rest of the family cheered. Our Year 6 team, Evie, Iris, Alice and Zoe all finished in the top 10, (5th, 6th, 8th and 9th respectively). Our Year 5 team, Primrose, Harriet, Olivia F and Sasha also raced strongly.To summarise, we had a fantastic year of sport with around 50 pupils taking part in the various events and competitions. It%u2019s an amazing club, open to all abilities and Mrs McAlister is leaving as a very, very proud coach. Best wishes to all as the club transitions to its new coaches at EVO Tri.Mrs McAlister, Triathlon CoachTRIATHLON