Triathlon Western Australia has taken the overall prize at the 2013 Regional Achievement and Community Awards – with SunSmart Busselton Festival of Triathlon scooping the Perth Airport Events & Tourism award. The Western Australian Regional Achievement & Community Awards are designed to ‘encourage, acknowledge and reward the valuable contributions individuals, communities and businesses are making throughout regional and rural Western Australia.’
The Perth Airport Events & Tourism category award was one of 10 awards on offer. Triathlon WA President Peter Rash said, “I was extremely proud to accept the Perth Airport Events and Tourism Award on behalf of Triathlon WA and to win our category. The other contenders in the room were all worthy recipients and well deserved of a prize.”
He continued, “And when we were finally named overall winner at the end of the evening, I was extremely humbled. While one of the key objectives of the event is to create a community event, which motivates and encourages everyone who is part of it, it is a great honour for our event to be acknowledged as a winner in this way.”
The Busselton Festival of Triathlon has grown consistently over the past 12 years from a small local triathlon to one that attracts athletes and spectators from more than 20 counties across the world.
Incorporating the SunSmart Ironman 70.3 event has enabled the festival to be a part of the global Ironman 70.3 circuit. This in itself offers great opportunity for the sport of triathlon in Western Australia. Both the individual and the team events form an important feeder for athletes who wish to in turn compete in Ironman Western Australia, also hosted in Busselton annually in December.
Triathlon WA as a not for profit sporting association has worked hard with the city of Busselton and other key stakeholders to expand the event through innovative ways, always seeking opportunities for growth and development. In 2013 the event hosted over 3,000 participants, close to 15,000 spectators and nearly 400 dedicated volunteers.
“Our event has been running for over 30 years and in line with our sport values of achievement, enjoyment, respect, health and belonging, together with the Board of Triathlon WA, I am grateful for this acknowledgement,” said Peter Rash.
A highlight of the triathlon calendar across Australia the event is the pinnacle race for most in WA and is commonly referred to as the ‘WA members race’. Triathlon WA notes that as ‘a sport, triathlon is accessible to all people and it is wonderful that the sport has been recognised not only for the health and community benefits, but acknowledged as a leading event in regional WA and one which is deserved of this prize.’
Triathlon WA is proud to have worked with both state and local government agencies including Healthway, the Department of Sport and Recreation, EventsCorp and the City of Busselton where together all parties have been able showcase Busselton and Western Australia, improve health and wellbeing and engage a whole community to be a part of the event.
“As a sport we made a strategic decision to invest into full time resources to ensure the Busselton Festival of Triathlon strives for continuous improvement and one of our key objectives is to always remain participant and community focused,” said State Executive Director Hayley Lethlean.
“It would be remiss not to acknowledge the hard work of our Event Manager Ashleigh Davis, our small team of staff at Triathlon WA and our volunteer Board Members.”
Lethlean continued, “Our event delivery partners TriEvents have been part of the event management team for the past 12 years and we acknowledge their contributions as a key delivery partner of the Busselton Festival of Triathlon and together with all the volunteers and local suppliers, this team have all contributed to the SunSmart Busselton Festival of Triathlon being the winner of the 2013 Regional Achievement and Community Award.”
Triathlon Western Australia also recently announced that Mizuno Australia is on board as the title run leg and merchandise partner for next year’s SunSmart Busselton Festival of Triathlon, which will be held between Thursday 1 May and Sunday 4 May 2014.
www.busseltonhalf.com
www.triwa.org.au
www.ironman.com
