With the new race season about to commence this is a great time to look back at the outstanding achievements of the Thrive Endurance team from last year. We are a small group of athletes but as you will see, punch well above our weight.
IM World Champs
We had Markcus Brown flying the flag after Qualifying at Cairns in his first ever IM.. After Joining the team 12 months ago Markcus has gone from strength to strength taking over 20 min off his 1/2 IM pb as well as shaving another 15 min off IM pb at Kona.
ITU World Championship
Sprint/Standard
With the qualifying spots for these races so sort after with the race being in the Gold Coast. We were so proud to pick up 9 spots over the 2 distances. In the sprint race we had Jack Smyth, Boyd Roberts, Charlie White, Jason Shields & Aaron Buchan. The Standard distance saw the girls also in the action with Wendy McHugh, Rebecca Cladingboal, Jason Shields & Aaron Buchan
Long Course
We had Becca Fellows and Wendy McHugh make the trek to Denmark to both take on the longest distance race of their lives. Both girls loved the experience with many lessons learned.
Ultraman Australia
Head Coach Jason Shields took on the epic 3 day event. Amazingly with nearly 12 months out of the sport due to injury he came back and not only completed the event, but walked away with 2nd place. Jason's objective was to practice what he preaches and be smart, do things right and show no matter what the distance anything is possible. Ultraman was also an awesome event with the Thrive Team crewing for him over the 3 days
Ironman Distance
This was the year of first timers at Thrive Endurance. We had 5 first time athletes Sharon Andronaco, Laura Smithers-Shaw, Katie Flatters, Becca Fellows and Markcus Brown take to the start line over 5 different races. Every single one of them achieved far beyond expectations. With Markcus going sub 10 and Becca going sub 11 both in the first attempt at the distance. I can see great things coming from all these guys in the future
1/2 IM Distance
Its was great to see some new faces taking on the challenge as well as some more experienced athletes putting together the races we know they were capable of. New faces to the distance were Scott McHugh, Luke Barlow & Becca Fellows. All up we had 35 1/2 distance finishes with a 100% success rate. We didnt just finish we THRIVED.
Standard/Sprint Distance
It was great to see the team out in force in so many local events as well as some great results in the bigger city races. With World champ points on offer we had athletes racing all over the country with over 80 finishes over the 2 distance. Safe to say we love every distance that triathlon has to offer at Thrive.
Run Events
Its not all about triathlon at Thrive Endurance. This season we had a few athletes target some running events. We had Blake Taverna and Laura Smithers-Shaw both step up and complete their first marathon. Rebecca Cladingboel as always, killing the trail run events. As well as many 1/2 marathon and 10km results.
Mountain Crew
This is the first season we have been running our Mountain Bike program. It has grown from strength to strength over the last 6 month. We had a team lead by Nathan May take on the Port to Port multi day event. The team has grown and the results are coming in from the next race as we speak.
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