Triathlon to bring big crowds to region

The annual Karri Valley Triathlon will kick off this weekend with an estimated 300 people set to compete across all events.

Event manager Anthony Wilson said organisers had started planning this event almost as soon as the last one had finished.

“We started off by applying for funding from the Manjimup shire, RAC and Tourism WA and after that we began recruiting volunteers and course directors to help us run the event,” he said.

“We then opened up athlete registration at the end of November last year and sent out invitations to professional triathletes.”

The event will have a short and a long course on Saturday as well as children’s events on the Sunday. The long course consists of a 1.5km swim, a 60km bike ride and a 12km run, while the short course is a third of this distance.

Sunday will have two separate age categories for the children’s events. Ages seven to nine will swim 100m, cycle for 2km and run for 500m, while ages 10 to 13 will do double this.

Wilson said they were expecting about 270 competitors for the long and short course events and 30 in the children’s events.

“We are expecting roughly the same number as last year for the Saturday courses and a few less for the children’s event, last year we had about 40,” he said.

“Last year’s female and male long course winners Emily Loughnan and Oli Stenning will be back this year to defend their title.”

Wilson said the event also aimed to embrace and support the Manjimup community.

“Even though our main event organisers are based in Perth, we always source volunteers from around the Manjimup area and any funds raised from the event go towards country week for the schools,” he said.

“We also get Manjimup High School students to help with the barbecue we have and Manjimup Scouts help out with marshalling so hopefully some of them will enrol in the children’s event as well.”