No looking back for young triathlete

FULL ON: Central Southland College triathlete Troy McAlister.

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Troy McAlister is a name worth remembering.

The 15-year-old Central Southland College student convincingly tucked the South Island secondary school under-16 triathlon championship title under his belt in Oamaru last weekend, winning by 45 seconds, and now looks ahead with confidence to competing at the triathlon nationals at Lake Karapiro beginning on March 25.

McAlister began competing in triathlons at the age of 13 while a year 8 student at Limehills Primary School, inspired by teacher Kerri Neylon.

Emerging as the winner from the Southland championships in his first competition in the under-14 category that year, McAlister never looked back.

He now trains with the support of coaches Sid Cumming and Jeremy Duncan.

McAlister says his philosophy is to "go as fast as you can" in a race, but behind that are many hours of training under the watchful eyes of Cumming and Duncan.

Cumming sets McAlister's training programme and identifies what he needs to work on.

While there are many hours involved in his training regime, McAlister says he has pretty much completed it by 5 o'clock every night, which means he has some time for school work, although it has usually meant an early morning start for him.

Sometimes it could be a training swim in Invercargill in the morning with swim coach Duncan, other days it could be in the pool at Winton with training mate and fellow triathlete Bobby Douglas.

Added to this is a minimum of six hours a week biking and more than two and a half hours of running that have to be completed.

Fortunately for McAlister, if time is needed off school Central Southland College is very supportive.

McAlister's current goal is to win at the nationals and winning the South Island championship in Oamaru has greatly added to his confidence in gaining the New Zealand title.

"I am feeling good, and everything is going to plan so far," he said.

"The past six weeks have been pretty full on, with some very intense training, but now we are easing off in the countdown to the nationals."

Cumming describes his young charge as "a pretty focused kid".

"There is room for his swimming to develop," Cumming said, "but his biking and running is as good as anyone else in the country ...

"McAlister could be in the top five, but he could even win it."

- © Fairfax NZ News

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