Jye springs into action
TOWNSVILLE teacher aide Jye Spriggs is set to up the ante on his triathlon training after flooding affected his preparation for the upcoming Dirt ‘N’ Dust event.
Organisers of Australia’s first non-coastal run, held in Julia Creek, is still going ahead despite the area being hit by heavy rain and flooding in the past week.
The 800m swim, 25km bike ride and 5km run in the bush has been a gruelling challenge for Olympians and world-class athletes.
Ignatius Park College HPE teacher aide Spriggs, 22, is confident he will be ready to tackle the challenge.
“I’m in pretty heavy training now, training twice a day,” he said.
“I think I’ve become more addicted to indoor training now. I had to move indoors on the bike because of the floods. It was hard (to train) over those couple of weeks.
“I’ll be going into pretty intensive swimming training in the next month to get my swimming back on track but my bike and run is still pretty strong.”
Last year’s Dirt ‘N’ Dust senior triathlon was taken out by South Australian Matt Hutchinson with a time of 1.02:59.
Spriggs, who has been competing in triathlons for five years, said he aimed to finish it in under an hour.
“This is my first time doing it,” he said.
“I’ve heard a lot about it and have always wanted to do it. It’s not the heat I’m too worried about, I think I’ve acclimatised to that.
“It’s more swimming through the mud and dirt.”
The annual Dirt ‘N’ Dust Festival will be celebrating its 25th anniversary this year during the Year of the Outback.
More than 3500 people are expected to attend the festival from April 12 to 14, and registrations for the triathlon have been extended until the end of the month.
I’LL BE GOING INTO PRETTY INTENSIVE SWIMMING TRAINING IN THE NEXT MONTH... BUT MY BIKE AND RUN IS STILL PRETTY STRONG JYE SPRIGGS