TARA PUTS BEST FOOT FORWARD
A young Gold Coast triathlete is making great strides in her bid to emulate the sport’s biggest stars
TRIATHLON is a sport for anyone of any age and here on the Gold Coast we have a wealth of talent.
In the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, the triathlon will feature 55 athletes competing in each of the men’s and women’s events.
Australia has a rich history of amazingly talented multidisciplined athletes, of the calibre of Michellie Jones, Emma Snowsill, Loretta Harrop, Emma Moffatt, Erin Densham, Miles Stewart, Brad Kahlefeld and Peter Robertson.
Most recently, we had medallists at last year’s Commonwealth Games where Australia won gold in the teams event with Ashleigh Gentle, Matthew Hauser, Gillian Backhouse, as well as individual silver medallist Jake Birtwhistle.
Many of these athletes have a strong background in one of the three disciplines and have worked extremely hard on the other two to make them competitive nationally and ultimately internationally.
I have been told that if an athlete can run and swim, they can be taught to ride a bike.
A young up-and-coming athlete in our region is Tara Sosinski.
At 15 years of age, she is the leading youth (under-16) athlete in the country.
Triathlon is her main passion, but Tara also finds time to compete in cross country and track and field competitions for school. This obviously hones her talent in the running area.
In 2018, she finished fourth in the state in cross country before going on to the national championships, where she finsupportive ished fifth in the under-16 age group.
On the track, Tara finished second in the state for the 3000m but due to prior commitments with triathlon, she didn’t go on to the national championships.
Tara was introduced to the sport of triathlon by her two older brothers, Lachlan, 18, and Jack, 19, who are also nationallevel triathletes.
All three are extremely lucky to have a strong, supportive network of coaches, originally starting under the tutelage of legendary mentor Jenny Alcorn at the Surfers Paradise Triathlon Club.
Tara attends Emmanuel College at Carrara, where she
currently trains with the college’s athletics/triathlon squad under the coaching of David and Aileen Reid (an Olympic triathlete, representing Northern Ireland) and swims at Somerset College under the coaching of Ash Callus (an Olympic gold medallist).
It is a well-known fact in any activity that a strong training squad promotes performance through powerful, sessions. In 2019, Tara competed in the Australian Junior Triathlon Series, which involved three races at Gold Coast, Canberra and Tasmania.
Points were added up across each race and Tara finished first in the youth category.
In the same event in 2018, she finished second overall.
Late last year, Tara also competed in the School Sport Triathlon Championships, finishing second in the under-16 age group as the bottom-age athlete.
Following the completion of the 2018-19 series, she will move from the youth age group to the junior.
In this category, there is an opportunity to be selected for the national team to compete at the World Triathlon Series.
“To compete in the green and gold of your country would be a proud moment and a dream come true,” Tara said.
Only just recently, Tara competed in the state School Sport Triathlon Championships, starting out extremely strong and exiting the water with a relatively large lead.
On commencing the next stage – the bike – she found her back tyre had a puncture.
This meant that she rode the first 5km lap on a flat tyre.
Organisers allowed her to exchange her wheel for the subsequent lap but the gap was too large to finish in the top places.
Unfortunately, this equipment failure allowed many of the field to overtake.
Although obviously upset, Tara finished the race strongly but missed out on selection for the state team.
Disappointments like this will show an athlete’s attitude to their peers and their sport.
From what I have been told from those associated in the sport, Tara has the attitude to take the knocks and be a strength in the future.
TO COMPETE IN THE GREEN AND GOLD OF YOUR COUNTRY WOULD BE A PROUD MOMENT AND A DREAM COME TRUE
TRIATHLETE TARA SOSINSKI