Small But Mighty

Trial Bay Triathlon 08 Feb 2026 Race report - by Huw Jones

The Breakers fronted a super-compact team for the 2026 Trial Bay Triathlon, with just 5 competitors (Sandra, Robyn, Joana, Benz and Huw) and 2 supporters (Becks and John) making the 3.5 hour trip south. But it was well worth the trip with glorious weather, a stunning location, an enjoyable exciting race course and solid results.

We arrived on Friday afternoon and settled down for some pre-dinner liquid carb loading and snacks combined with a game of the ever enlightening The Worst Case Scenario. Who would have known that Robyn would prefer to land a plane on water……. rather than fall down a well?

We all did the traditional ride of the cycle course (plus a little extra) on Saturday morning followed by the obligatory coffee and cake. The rest of the day was spent dipping in the very warm ocean, watching the very large kangaroos bound through the camping ground (and knowing who would come off worse if one jumped in front of a cyclist during the race), resting up, and collecting our rego bags.

The weather forecast for race day was pretty good, but with a potential 35 km/h headwind on the outward part of the course. Luckily, the wind stayed away and there were enough clouds to make it a near perfect day. The main challenge, if we ignore the other competitors, was the huge quantity of sand that had been washed towards shore over the last few weeks, which meant close to a 100m wade before it became deep enough to swim. For the Enticers, the organisers watched as their 300m swim was pretty much a 300m wade. But what to do with the Sprinters? The organisers were torn between a very long wade (ruining our legs for what was to come) or serving us up as shark bait by pushing the furthest buoy 400m offshore. In the end they made the right decision and moved it out to sea, sending the tasty and succulent (Beck’s words, not mine) under 40 year-old men out first to test the waters. The organisers must have been a little worried as it is the first time I’ve seen them do a head count before each wave set off.

There were only 204 athletes in the sprint event, so the swim waves were not too congested and the Breakers all had strong swims. We still had to wade the last 100m, though Robyn perfected her “glide” instead, and then run 100m on soft sand to transition but that warmed us up nicely for the cycle leg.

The fastest breaker in T1 was Joana with a speedy 1:36 mins which was also the 7th fastest time for a female. Shows what lots of practice can do. For those that have done this event before, the cycle course was changed. The organisers had bowed to pressure from the hill-phobic athletes and made the course an out-and-back predominantly flat course. Definitely less technical, but also less interesting. The only challenge was the uphill start, straight from the mount line. This caught a lot of competitors out despite the MC repeatedly saying before the race ”make sure you have left your bike in low gear in transition”. On the positive side, this gave the supporters plenty of fun! Of course the professionalism of the Breakers meant we had no such issues. The fastest breaker in T2 was Robyn with a blistering 1:11 which even beat the great Tina McEvoy.

The run course was also different this year and on paper it looked a lot more challenging as it started with an uphill section. However, everyone on our team loved it as it was a very compact, 2-lap course around the campground, with lots of variation. This meant there were supporters along the whole way, which really gave a great atmosphere. We really hope they keep this course for next year, especially as it was only 4.7km by my watch.

A few mentions……

Huw was the fastest Breaker on the day with a time of 1:13:56. Joana’s focused run training over recent months certainly paid off as she came 6th in her age group (out of 15). Sandra was the fastest runner in her age group with a time of 1:24:11. Robyn had a strong cycle leg with the Breakers’ second fastest time of 40:45. Lots of kudos goes to Benz for completing the event with his dodgy knee. And despite the small team, the Breakers came away with 3 silvers and lots of good memories, awwwww

Sprint Results - 750m (ish) swim, 20km bike, 5km (actually 4.7km) run

Huw Jones 1:13:56 2nd M60-64

Sandra Killen 1:24:11 2nd F65-69

Robyn Darke 1:24:42 2nd F60-64

Joana Sponsel 1:27:50 9th F30-34

Geoff Bensley 1:31:29 14th M60-64

The next race is the NSW Club Championships in Forster on 21 February and we look forward to fielding a bigger team and collecting plenty of points.

The Byron Breakers Bowling Series report to come next.....